Guardiola reflects on the challenges of coaching Barcelona: “The most painful hits come from within the club”

Barcelona, over the years, has seen several managers take the helm. From Pep Guardiola to Luis Enrique, Quique Setien, Ernesto Valverde, Ronald Koeman to finally Xavi Hernandez, all have spent their spells leading the team.

A common complaint, however, has been how draining the job is compared to coaching other teams or under different circumstances for the club bears very high standards that are difficult to meet.

In recent times, Xavi and Enrique have come out to speak on how the job is emotionally draining and challenging for a manager.

Guardiola speaks on the Barcelona job

Speaking to Cat Radio in a recent interaction, Manchester City manager and Barcelona legend Pep Guardiola spoke on how the Barcelona job was demanding as a coach and the most difficult job in the world.

“The toughest job, by a long shot,” he began.

“In other places, you get hit by opponents, but in Barcelona, the most painful hits are those that come from within the club itself,” he added.

Commenting on whether the trend was recent or was historically present at the club, he said it was deep-rooted and largely because the size of the institution provides little margin for error.

“It has always been like this and it will always be like this. Trying to change that would be a big mistake. We have to live with this dynamic because it is part of the club’s identity that makes it unique.”

Elaborating on what he meant in saying high standards, he spoke on how the team’s failure to win one trophy despite winning all others was considered a failure.

“It’s a great club. We were winning the league and the cup for many years, and the club was considered a failure because we were out of the Champions League semi-finals.”

Giving his two cents on the entire situation and his stance on it as a manager, he cryptically said,

“In Barcelona, there are a number of wars and you have to choose, which war will I fight? You will be wrong if you fight a useless war, a big mistake.”

“There is only one war you have to get involved in: convincing the players every day that you will win Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday, and so on. The rest you don’t get involved in,” he clarified.