Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney believes his former boss Sir Alex Ferguson still has the edge over Pep Guardiola in the debate over football’s greatest managers.
Guardiola backed up Manchester City’s historic, treble-winning 2022/23 campaign by steering the club to a fourth straight Premier League title last season.
City’s latest triumph took Guardiola’s personal tally to to six in the English top flight, putting the Spaniard level with Bob Paisley and George Ramsay, with only Sir Alex Ferguson (13) above him in the history books.
In total, the 53-year-old has lifted 39 trophies since taking charge of Barcelona, his first job in senior management, back in 2008.
However, Ferguson remains the most successful manager in the history of the game after winning 49 titles with St Mirren, Aberdeen and Manchester United and Rooney feels the iconic Scot stands alone as the best of all time.
‘I think of course there are going to be arguments as to who is better,’ the ex-United and England captain told ESPN Brasil.
‘But I think people tend to just look at what Sir Alex did at Manchester United, and what he did at Aberdeen was incredible.
‘And you’d ask the question, could Guardiola do that at a team like Aberdeen?
‘There’s questions, there’s debate, I think Guardiola for his era is of course the best and he’s changed the way football is played worldwide.
‘But yeah, for me, Sir Alex, what he achieved in the game is incredible.’
Recent reports indicated that Guardiola will step down as City head coach next summer, with the Catalonian entering into the final 12 months of his contract at the Etihad.
But City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak is relaxed about the situation, insisting the club will land on the ‘right solution’ that works for Guardiola.
‘We have had this conversation many times before, you know that, over the years of the contract,’ he told City’s internal media in his annual end of season address.
‘Pep has always been fully committed to this club, fully committed to every contract that he has signed with us.
‘This decision on his future is always a decision that we will take together, and I have no doubt that we will find, as always, we have done, the right solution that works for Pep and works for us.’
Al Mubarak said it was ‘hard to put into words’ the extent to which Guardiola had transformed City and English football as a whole.
‘You can look at just records, for history’s sake and there I think he’s racked up every record, almost, in the book. And these are records that I think will be very, very hard in the future to ever break,’ he added.
‘From winning six out of the last seven Premier Leagues, to winning four in a row, to the number of wins, the records go on and on and on.
‘I think what his impact has been on football. English football has changed with the evolution to the type of football that Pep has brought into the league.’
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