Pep Guardiola is at the point in a career when he is nearer the end than the beginning, when a milestone can make him feeling nostalgic, where the reminders of his longevity are an indication of how much has achieved. Sunday will bring his 1,000th game in management. There will not be another 1,000. “Don't ask me,” he grimaced. “It's too much.” And not merely because Guardiola’s initial response to the figure was simply to say: “2,000 press conferences”.
When Guardiola talked of “insane numbers”, that was not actually what he had in mind. The Catalan did not know his exact win percentage – a mere 71.57 – but knew enough to realise that, on average, of every 10 games, he would win seven, draw one or two and lose one or two. He talked of his fortune in managing “extraordinary clubs”. One of the extraordinary elements, though, is that he has won at least 70 percent of his matches with each of Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City.
