Hes decent but of course even grant could have won something with a team as talented as that.

Seriously, Avram Grant (I said half decent ). Yeh I think another good manager would have won something, but does what sets Pep apart is the number of trophies he's won? Would most managers have matched that?

Out of interest would Wenger?

In short yes he is fantastic.

He has balls how many would have gone in and told Ronaldinho and Deco were too go? Also they had a CL qualifayer in his first match and he let Messi go to the olympics, imagine if Barca got knocked out and that backfiring on him.

Also don't forget he came in after they finished 3rd with 67 points, TEN behind Villareal, the core of the team that are widely know as the best side of this generation were around that season when they flopped badly.

Also he is a tactical genius, how many times has he outdone Jose and Fergie now? you can't keep doing that without being a special manager.

Tommy has he outdone Jose and Fergie TACTICALLY? It's the same system he always plays, same or near as same personnel. Could Martin Oneil have stuck those players out against Fergie and Jose and managed the same?

Without knowing a great deal about La Liga i would have to say that he has been brilliant. It is one thing having a great squad of players, most of whom have been trained from within the clubs renound academy. It is another thing building a hungry TEAM from that squad.

In his first season he made tough decicions, getting rid of star players such as Ronaldinho, and promoting young uns such as Busquets- very Fergie like. He ended up doing the treble.

He has one the the title twice more and the chamions league, Barca would prob have one it three years running if it wasn't for a great performance from Lucio in the Semi's.

I always think United have a chance against anybody, I bet big for them the Champions league game last year, but we got a real beating from Barca - they just swarm you whenever you have the ball, you can't then get it back - unreal. (i think their games are a bit dull actually for this reason). This is the managers way.

Out of all of the supposed SAF replacements we could do a lot worse.

He is brilliant tactically and you would notice the switches he does when needed (its a different matter that he doesnt need it most of the time though).

Actually people dont give him enough credit for what he has done with the team.

And for some of you suggesting that anybody could win with the current Barca team is similar to Big Sam claiming he could manage Real Madrid.

Very good manager, whilst I personally disagree with GuitarAbuse and would say tactics is where he falls short, I think his charisma and personality make for a very good team moral, which is of course what SAF has always built his sides on.

He also has a great way of handling young players (he was previously the youth team manager) and knowing when people need replacing, and he has made great signings and imo, handled media very well (dealt with Jose's best wummary).

Do You Consider Guardiola a Great Manager?
==========================================

no.

the current barca team was pretty much started with cruyff in the early 90s and has been developed through a succession of managers.

guardiola just happens to be the one to reap the rewards of years of hard work.

as for tactics - he was totally outthought by mourinho in the CL semi with inter, and frankly had it not been for superb performace by messi he'd have done it again with real a year later.

In short, yes! Out of 14 Cups and titles open to him in his (short) time at Barca, his won 11 of them!

he had most of the current crop as the manager of the acadamy side from La Masia. He oversaw the developement of most of the current crop. He is Mr Barca, a great manager , coach and tutor. But I am not convinced that he would succeed at any other club.

He is up there with the best imo.

Busbybabes,

Check out Barca's evolution in Pep's years in hard tackle or the various tactics he has adopted in Zonal Marking and you'll know that he is not as inept as most people think.

Here's another article about a tactic that they have started adopting recently to counter teams that sit deep or park the bus against them (like Inter did).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2010/oct/26/the-question-barcelona-reinventing-w-w

and as good as Messi is, you have to play him in the right way to get the most out of him, something Argentina always fail to do.

Of course he´s a great manager.

He won the League, Cup and Champions League in his first season at Barca and in his three seasons as Barca manager has won 2 Champions Leagues, 3 titles as well as the Copa Del Reyes and the SuperCopa.

Previous to Guadiola Barca had only ever won the Champions League twice in their entire history.

In his 3 seasons at Barca Guardiola has already equalled that.

I personally don't think you can be a bad manager and win what he has. He has also managed to keep a squad that could easily be full of ego's relativity grounded.

His man management appears to be good and he has manged to draw Fabregas and Pique back to the club. I think his big test would be to leave as everyone will compare to his barce record. I am doubtful he would ever be a united manager but wouldn't be surprised to see him at chelsea once AVB stops being Romans new favourite puppet.

I tihnk in summary he is one of the few managers who have spent millions on a squad and kepting winning and when he didn't he kept his job and te squad together.

he's definitely good, but Mourinho owned him on the field and in the transfer market with Inter.
Although he inhereted the 2006 championship team, he's definitely made Barcelona the best club in the world though, and it has affected the Spain national team as well as they are the best internation team in the world now.