Before Pep Guardiola’s arrival on our shores, English football was littered with pragmatic coaches who deemed themselves to strictly adhere to the coaching manual, to not think outside of the box, to be aware of the Guardiola philosophy and then to become a game changer to make them steps outside of the box. Once the Spaniards termed ‘Total Football’ link to articles Feb 2^nd 2024 Johan Cruyff Part 1 and Part 2 Feb 29^th 2024 was rebirthed in the traditions of English football to make the eyes go pop, the wow factor, the wings of the pragmatic coaches became dinosaurus rex to a degree, their wings were clipped, limited they became viewed in many quarters.

The rank and file of the English coaches came with the much travelled Roy Hodgeson who had spent years on a learning curve working within a framework of coaching formulas in different countries, but Roy remained pragmatic but can be credited with adopting the art of extracting the best out of his players. Onto Sam Allardyce who did plant early seedlings with Sam’s salad days at Bolton Wanderers, alongside being one of the first at the rank on foreign players becoming prevalent with Jay-Jay Okacha, Eidur Gudjohnsen, Jussi Jaaskelainen, Fernando Hierro, Bruno Ngotty, Gudni Bergsson, Ivan Campo to add to the mix of Kevin Nolan, Kevin Davies and Youri Djorkaeff were great to watch with a multi talented squad that would play attacking, exciting football. Allardyce today is termed as a negative coach, they forget Sam’s Bolton days to state that with the right players at Sam’s disposal he can deliver that forward think, that’s been proven, not of the Guardiola platform but Sam did stretch to be company on that stage all be it thirty odd years before Pep’s arrival, the famous Allardyce quote “I am better than Ferguson, Guardiola”. Sam later stated that he was joking, but was he? The Welsh drones of Tony Pulis could be heard withing the confines of Stoke City for many years, Stoke became sloganned as being the worst away club to visit, particularly on a wet windy night with the open ended corners of the ground grabbing hold of the wind rush to slap bang into all opposition team’s faces. Stoke loved it, hardened bastards they become under the regimental guidance of Pulis, a ploy to usher those wind traps? Why not? Anything was possible at Stoke, they were the Stoke Krays but without the gun powder.

Pulis had the pitch shortened and narrowed to suck the opposition into being free of easy movement, they were like pack hounds, they would hunt the opposition down long ball merchants and they had football’s longest ball thrower, not quite it was all legit, Rory Delap was the player with this remarkable skillset, Pulis Tarew in pitchside towels to give the maximum effect in drying ones hands to launch the ball into the opposition’s penalty box, they were like the rebirth of the corner kick but from the touchlines at any given angle, teams hated playing at Stoke, it became a fortress, a Pulis fortress, a coach who could never transgress to silky attacking football, that was Pulis, to be criticised, no, in a bizarre way it was entertaining to watch, the Stoke encounters always had an edge Pulis today has to be termed as a bloody good coach who did bring different facets to the English game, don’t look to rob the Stoke rank because they would rob you back and more, Tony Pulis, Mr Stoke City.

The batched English pragmatic coaches always maintain that with the right players at their disposal, then they would strike out with attacking, entertaining football, but is that the case? That tag can be afforded to Sam Allardyce, point proven at Bolton Wanderers. Many regards Pep Guardiola on a different pedestal, but should be the case? Pep acknowledges these managers and respects their coaching philosophies. Neil Warnock, the most successful Football League manager of all time was marked down by Pep as the only manager he has faced who set his Cardiff City team to mark man to man, the termed man marker is very rarely employed by managers, a refreshing observation from Pep, but it’s not quite the same as the origins of the termed ‘man marker’.

Another name to roll off the tongue, is the Everton returned David Moyes, most active one on the list. On arrival at Everton, Moyes phased the team into an attacking force as opposed to David’s cockles and eels at Westham United when the supporters viewed the football as negative but that’s the nature of the evolving view points. Moyes is third on the list of most matches managed in the Premiership standing at 704 matches (at the time of writing) trailing Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson. Sam Allardyce ranked at number 5 with 542 matches, Roy Hodgeson at number 8 with 416 matches and Tony Pulis with 322 matches ranked at number 16 the most pragmatic of coaches, Joe Kinnear, George Graham and Sean Dyche also enter the list. This is a signature tune that these managers have been successful with their pragmatic philosophies, perhaps not ladened with trophy’s, but if not at an elite club that can become a near on impossible ask. Can supporters be over critical? The craving of today’s society transmits into football, win, win, win, bragging rights, a materialistic drive to the trophy cabinet, pressurised by the media, questions asked, answer sought, TikTok, YouTube, X, Facebook, it’s all out there, what’s the world become, what’s football become, corruption lords itself in the corridors of power, it’s a crooked spiral, babies out of the cot merchandised in their parents team. Can they check out the results, why not, their foplay with pressing, sliding and reacting into modern technology, it’s all become crazed, the key is not to take it all too seriously, the Manero videos, game for a laugh, is there enough laughter in the suck fest the pideo holed window of life, and to the masses football is life. Whatever happened to those antiquated slot machines all rusted up, has the penny dropped, Liverpool FC followed that penny with the appointment of Arne Slot and what an incredible journey it’s become, slotted into the Jurgen Klopp shoes with ease, on their way to a 20^th league title? Seems to be the case, the Slot methodology, we will become drenched in sweat with an upgrade in work ethic, sorry Jurgen, the stats to reveal all, nothing will stand on our way to the title, drop in standards and you will be hooked, Slot questioned Darwin Nunez’s work ethic, the standards had dropped, it was a clear message to all, you do it my way or not at all, results dictate losing one match (at time of writing), not to question the Dutch man’s framework. Liverpool are top pf the parade with KLM covered during match play with Opta ranking Liverpool as covering the most distance on those 90 minutes, high press, high intensity but with a more controlled team ethic as opposed to Klopp’s coaching philosophy. The top player rank belongs to the Hungarian Dominik Szoboszlai at 115 km, 7.1 miles covered averaged out, all that Hungarian goulash perhaps, amazing stats. Tottenham Hotspurs have the edge in this department with gung ho intensity press being manager Postecoglou’s philosophy, but coaching goes way beyond the Ange’s mindset with Arne Slot determining to be the new king on the block displacing Pep Guardiola, a wider lensed confirmer is Tottenham’s dalliance, all of a romantic backdrop, no, the North Londoners have been flirting near the relegation feathers as for Arne Slot you reign oppermachtig (supreme) and long may it continue.