Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has lauded his former boss Johan Cruyff as the main reason why he has been hugely successful as a player and as a manager.

Guardiola managed to achieve a lot of success while being the captain of the Barcelona team. He has gone on to achieve an equal level of success as a manager. In his managerial career, Guardiola has won numerous league titles and Champions League medals. More importantly, he is seen as a coach with a vision of playing the game and being able to apply that on the pitch.

It is one of the main reasons for coaches around the world trying to replicate the Guardiola style of football. In many ways, Guardiola says that he is just trying to replicate what Johan Cruyff taught him on the pitch. As a teenager coming through the Barcelona youth ranks,Cruyff picked him up and put him into the first-team. Barcelona were under the ethos of total football during the time of the Dutchman. However, they achieved huge success with this philosophy only during the time of Guardiola. For a period of four years, Barcelona the best team in the planet by a long distance and they managed to amass several titles.

Now with Manchester City, Guardiola has looked back on the days under Cruyff. ‘He was unique, totally unique. Without him I wouldn’t be here. I know for sure this is why I am, right now, the manager of Manchester City and before that Bayern Munich and Barcelona. Before he came we didn’t have a cathedral of football, this beautiful church, at Barcelona. We needed something new. And now it is something that has lasted. It was built by one man, by Johan Cruyff, stone by stone. That’s why he was special’ said Guardiola.