Pep Guardiola has been at Man City for almost eight years and won it all. As if it wasn’t boring already, Jurgen Klopp’s departure from Liverpool is only supposed to make life easier for the Spaniard and his well-oiled machine (no pun intended).
But one day, Pep will step down and someone else will have to replace him — why can’t it be a British manager? They don’t say cerveza to mean beer, but they know a thing or two about football.
Let’s not beat about the bush: we have selected the 11 finest British managers of this century and ranked them according to their capacity to replace Pep Guardiola at Man City. Read on!
Tony Pulis
If you think us foolish enough to put Tony Pulis into the top tier for memes, think again — we’re not here to play to the gallery. Because let’s face it: Tony Pulis would be a horrible successor to Pep.
It’s not even Tony’s Route One football that wouldn’t suit Man City or the fact Bernardo Silva’s ballerina hands are no match to Rory Delap’s muscles. It’s that he would bore Man City players to death with stories about his time at Gillingham in 1996.
Even when you listen to Pulis crack stories on a podcast you feel like you’re missing out on most jokes because you just weren’t there when Pulis got the Gills promoted from the Third Division.
Tony Pulis — sacked in the morning (at Man City)!
David Moyes
We’ll say it — David Moyes is vastly underrated. You’ve got the entire Premier League fondling Ange Postecoglou’s second chin for going suicidal v Chelsea and saying ‘mate’ but not a peep about the Scotsman who’s doing a tremendous job at West Ham. For three years running, Moyes got the Hammers into Europe, and an actual trophy is the cherry on the cake.
David’s only shot at a top club job went tits up, although let’s be honest: only a 61-year-old Sir Alex Ferguson would’ve adequately replaced Fergie at 71. For this reason, the jury is still out on Moysey, but he’d definitely be good enough to bring a trophy to Man City.
Sean Dyche
It’s a huge myth that Sean Dyche is a dinosaur that can only count the sum of four plus four plus two. At one point in the 2023/24 campaign, Dyche’s Everton had a better xG than Guardiola’s Man City. Now imagine what happens if Dyche has Erling Haaland instead of Neal Maupay up front.
Fine, maybe Dyche doesn’t replace Guardiola completely, but he’s good enough to do a domestic cup double. And he also has a superior taste in music.
Brendan Rodgers
If Brendan Rodgers is good enough to win the FA Cup with Leicester City, he’s good enough to do it with Man City.
Rodgers is so in love with Spain and Spanish football he probably guzzles Estrellas when on holiday. Of all clubs, Rodgers had the balls to try tiki-taka at Swansea City.
His Swans were actually everybody’s flavour of the mouth in 2011/12, though quite often it was possession for the sake of it: even the relegated duo of Bolton Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers each outscored 11th-placed Swansea that season.
Finally, for all the great character spiel, Rodgers’ teams have a nasty record of mentally collapsing in the second half of the season — the opposite of Guardiola’s Man City. For this reason, we only put Brendan in the second tier.
Sam Allardyce
We’ll have you know that Samuel Allardyce is one of the most progressive coaches of the Premier League era. He was among the first to leverage the use of data to gain an advantage over his opponents. When half the league still regarded the good ol’ 4-4-2 as God’s plan, Big Sam introduced psychotherapists, an in-house psychologist and a cryo-chamber at Bolton.
Allardyce also knows how to work with star players. He convinced World Cup winner Youri Djorkaeff and Real Madrid’s former captain Fernando Hierro to join his modest Bolton side. Big Sam even managed to get the best out of El Hadji Diouf — the cantankerous Senegalese called him ‘a good man, like a daddy’. Results followed: for three years in a row, the Wanderers were on the heels of the traditional top four.
You might point out that Big Sam’s latest stints weren’t as successful as his Bolton years, but that’s because he’s not given the chance he deserves. As he himself pointed out: “I won’t ever be going to a top-four club because I’m not called Allardici, just Allardyce”.
Some people luck into top jobs, while others get nothing even after decades of hard work. We’re convinced Big Sam would do a stellar job to replace Pep Guardiola at Man City — he only needs that chance.
Tim Sherwood
If Tim Sherwood were awarded a point for everything he has an opinion about, he’d make City champions with 105 points. Alas, that’s not how football works, so Tactics Tim should keep providing soundbites for TalkSPORT.
Steve Bruce
Where do we even begin with Steve Bruce? Probably by giving him his due: few managers reach 1,000 games.
But how long would Bruce last at Man City? A few days maybe and not because he’s a Man United legend, but rather because he doesn’t seem to know what he wants. He said in late 2023: “I'm itching to go back in, not necessarily as a manager [...] I'd like to get back involved in some capacity [...] Maybe consultancy... something along those lines. That sporting director role rings a nice bell for me.”
In addition, City players might be underwhelmed by Bruce’s tactical understanding. Don’t get us wrong, Steve Bruce is a genuinely good man, but it’s hard to imagine Rodri taking instructions like ‘hoof it, lad’ from the touchline.
Alan Pardew
By all means, Alan Pardew is not a bad manager. His French-speaking Newcastle United side were one of the most entertaining in the Premier League in the early 2010s, and he was also a Jesse Lingard dab away from winning the FA Cup and doing the second dance of the day.
However, Pards’ latest spells at CSKA Sofia and Aris Thessaloniki, of all places, have been subpar — just like Sam Allardyce’s short-lived spells at Leeds and West Brom, you may point out. But where Big Sam has bags of self-confidence and extravagance, Alan Pardew has a list of controversies and a Swedish wife.
Neil Warnock
Different philosophies, same inspiration. If Guardiola goes, Neil Warnock must be the first name on the Sheikh’s replacement list.
Hear us out: no one reaches 1,626 games in English football, the all-time record for a manager, by being incompetent. Just like no one else carries signed pictures of himself in a bumbag — not even Pep Guardiola.
Neil Warnock also holds the record for most promotions in English football (8), which would be a valuable skill if Man City are eventually sent to the National League for cooking the books.
Unless you’re a Leeds United fan, what’s not to like about Neil Warnock?
Gareth Southgate
Gareth Southgate is a special case: he’s England’s most successful manager in the XXI century, but no top club would touch him with a bargepole. We insist he’s not as bad as people want him to be and he might actually be a decent pick for Man City. With some luck in a penalty shootout he might even nick a trophy.
By the way, Southgate was the Middlesbrough manager on the day they famously thrashed Man City 8-1 in 2008. Gareth Southgate might not be an adequate replacement for Pep Guardiola, but at least he’d go a full circle.
Frank Lampard
It’s always a great story when a legendary player leads his team to success as a manager, so how cool it would be for Man City legend Frank Lampard to repeat the trick.
Lamps may have lucked himself into the Chelsea job in 2019, but hey, he still managed a top-four finish with a transfer ban and without Eden Hazard. This alone leaves Tim Sherwood without a company in the bottom tier of our rankings.
However, Frank’s career afterwards went downhill. He seems to keep targeting jobs well above his ability and Everton’s massive improvement under Sean Dyche exposes the difference in their respective levels.
Would you swap any places in our ranking? Let us know in the comments!
