City News

Pep Confidential: The Inside Story of Pep Guardiola’s First Season at Bayern Munich, by Martí Perarnau, is a great book for people who like soccer.  It talks all about the club Bayern Munich when it was run by Pep Guardiola, in an intensive look at his first year there.  It goes over the rigor of training sessions, the diets, his remarks about the team, how he makes his lineups, how they prepare for big games, and much more.  It is a pretty much chronological story of his time there from start to finish. I love soccer, so this book was a great read, and I couldn’t put it down. It is very long, around four hundred pages, but if you like soccer, and want to learn how it is to be a manager, it is very interesting.

Pep Guardiola, who started out as a fantastic player in the 90s, became the coach of FC Barcelona in 2008.  He turned the team into an unstoppable force, collecting major silverware in his 4 years there. He develop young players, created the best team the world has ever seen, and developed the best player the world has ever seen, thanks to his insight and time as manager.  His unique vision for the game made him a very sought after coach, and definitely the best in the world. Feeling burned out after 4 years at the club, he took a sabbatical. During that time, many teams approached him to have him coach them after that year. He chose FC Bayern Munich, and through this book, you learn all how it goes.  How he changed a team already on top of the world, having won every trophy the past year. He gave them a distinct style, developed new players, and brought out the strengths of each player.

I really liked reading this book, as it is something I am really interested in. With that said, I recommend this book to not only people who like soccer, but all sports fans.  It is a great read about a sports genius who revolutionized the teams he went to coach. I really enjoyed seeing his perspective on everything, and how he injected his extreme competitiveness and perfectionism into the team.   He inherited a team that had just won everything possible to win, and rather than going with the formula that brought them there, he changed their entire playing style. He created a legacy at the team while he was there for only 3 years.  Reading his views on games, and how he handled a massive loss which was brought about by a flaw in his tactics, is very revealing and interesting. This book talks exclusively with many of the worlds best players, as the writer was given 100% access to the entire team, so he got  an extremely good understanding of everything that went on in the club. He was with them every step of the way in their season. As a soccer fan, I loved this book so much and couldn’t put it down.