Manchester City bringing in Juanma Lillo is more proof Pep Guardiola remains committed to Etihad project
If Pep Guardiola’s selection of Juanma Lillo as his next assistant confirms one thing, it’s that the Manchester City manager will be sticking around regardless of the club’s fate at next week’s appeal against their Champions League ban.
The Catalan is making plans for the immediate future – namely next season, which will be the last of his current contract.
He has already assured City’s hierarchy and his squad that his position will not be affected by the outcome of the club’s bid overturn a two-year Champions League ban for serious breaches of Financial Fair Play, despite Europe being the final frontier he needs to conquer at the Etihad.
If the Court of Arbitration for Sport, who will hear the case from Monday to Wednesday next week, uphold the ban, it will effectively mean this season is Guardiola’s last chance to deliver the trophy City’s Abu Dhabi owners prize most.
But the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager is clearly thinking beyond this term and is already making preparations to reclaim the Premier League title that is set to be wrested away by an unstoppable Liverpool team.
There are holes in his squad. He wants centre back above all this summer after paying the price for missing out on Harry Maguire. Benfica’s Ruben Dias has been watched closely.
But Guardiola also knows he needs to address issues in his backroom team after losing assistant Mikel Arteta to Arsenal in December.
Despite opting to see out the campaign without the man he considered a crucial appointment when taking over at City in 2016, he has determined the role must be filled externally, rather than promoting from within.
Rodolfo Borrell has stepped in on an interim basis, but Guardiola has turned to a man he considers one of the finest thinkers in football to be his next lieutenant.
“He had always said that the three coaches he liked the most were me, (Marcelo) Bielsa and Arsene Wenger,” Lillo told the New York Times in 2016.
High praise indeed.
According to Spanish journalist Guillem Balague, who wrote ‘Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning,’ Lillo is held in even greater esteem.
He claims the 54-year-old “along with Johan Cruyff represents the biggest influence upon his evolution as a manager.”
He adds: “Pep sometimes worries that he can bore his friends to tears with his one-track conversations about football, football and more football. He had no such fears when it came to his relationship with Lillo, who had always been at the end of the phone to discuss the finer details of the game and had been a frequent visitor to Pep’s house while he played in Serie A.
“Pep used to feel unprepared when it came to certain topics like defensive concepts or particular training methodologies. When he needed answers he would turn to Lillo at any time of day: ‘How do you solve this type of situation?’ ‘If I do this what will happen?’
“According to Pep, Lillo is one of the best prepared coaches in the world and a leader in his field when it comes to developing a vision of the game, despite the fact that the world of elite sports hasn’t been kind in rewarding him.”
Guardiola ended his playing career in Mexico with Dorados just to get the chance to work under the much-travelled Lillo.
They would stay up late at night holding exhaustive conversations about football.
While Guardiola clearly rates Lillo highly, his appointment lacks the glamour of other names linked with the job.
Xabi Alonso and Vincent Kompany were both mentioned in relation to the post – but Guardiola has gone with a man whose vision of the game he trusts implicitly, and who also has the experience and confidence to challenge him.
For one year at least, City will see if their manager’s faith in Lillo is well-placed.
And if it turns out to be a dream pairing, maybe Guardiola will be tempted to hang around for a bit longer after all.
