Pep Guardiola meets Johnny Marr: ‘When we lose, it’s as if we’ve killed someone’

Johnny Marr You look very well. I’m guessing you went away during the international break because you would never get a tan like that in Manchester.

Pep Guardiola The weather is OK when you’re winning, but if you lose a game and it’s wet and grey, it can be pretty awful! I’m just back from a holiday in the Dominican Republic with my wife.

Johnny Do you enjoy taking time out during the break or does it mess with the team’s momentum?

Pep I always have doubts about it. When you’re winning back-to-back games, you have a kind of rhythm that can easily be disrupted.

Johnny [Former City midfielder] Fabian Delph lives a couple of doors down from me. He was out late last night…

Pep Dancing, raving.

Johnny Obviously, I’m joking!

Pep I know. But I want the team to be happy. If they have the occasional drink, it’s not a problem. What happens off the pitch is your business, but if you’re not able to be professional because you haven’t had enough sleep, then you’ll be rubbish and you won’t play. And next season you’ll be at another club.

Johnny It’s the same in my profession. You know the musicians who want to be really great and who therefore take care of themselves.

This is a basic question, but how did you get into football?

Pep I was born and raised in Santpedor, a village 70km [43 miles] from Barcelona. My dad was a Barcelona fan. I played in the street all the time; there were no traffic lights and hardly any cars. Mum had to call me in: “Come and have lunch, Pep!” Then, later: “Come and have dinner!” I was only at home to get my homework done, to eat and sleep.

Johnny It’s a very working-class thing, to be out on the street playing all the time. It’s the same all over the world.

Pep Yeah, of course. I was in Central America last summer and whenever we went to the poor areas, all the kids were playing football. My kids have never played on the street. Partly because they grew up in Barcelona, which is a big, busy city.

Johnny When people talk about you, they nearly always mention you being a perfectionist. Is that too simplistic?

Pep Yeah, it is too simplistic. I always believe I can do better, that I can do more. But I have a family to think about. Before, I might have spent 12 hours before a game analysing the opposition. Now I am more selective about my time, and my assistants are incredibly well prepared, which takes some of the pressure off me. But I love my job – watching the way a team defends and working out how we could break it down. At the same time, I love going home and having a glass of wine with the family.

Johnny Do you feel as though you’ve always got your foot on the gas?

Pep Definitely – although maybe less so compared with the start of my career. I don’t want to be aggressive all the time, but sometimes the players have to feel that I am angry, I am sad, I am disappointed. I am not fake. The next day, I will be here working, but I don’t want to see the players at breakfast. I don’t like them because we lost.

Johnny I’ve been in a lot of bands over the years, and I’m always very exacting. I get pissed off when we do a bad show and someone hasn’t given it their everything, no doubt because I’ve always been a grafter. I’m the same when I’m asked to produce a young band: I like to be the first one in the studio in the morning and the last one out at night. For me, being a leader in that situation isn’t related to ego – I enjoy the psychology of it. Like, noticing that the guitarist’s head was down after he’d talked to his girlfriend on the phone. You want to be nice, but you have to get the song done. So you go over and put your arm around him, and say something reassuring. Do you enjoy the man-management side of your job?

Pep Like musicians, footballers are still people. Sometimes they are sad because they are getting divorced or their kids have health issues. You don’t always know what is going on in their lives. People think that, because I’m a manager, I have to solve all the problems, but who solves my problems? I need someone to say: “C’mon, Pep, everything is fine. We’ll get there in the end.”

Johnny So you need support as well?

Pep Of course! Journalists turn up to press conferences thinking I am some kind of magician and I know the secrets of the game. I have doubts, I have fears. Bad moments, bad days. Bad periods.

Johnny Is the British media any easier to deal with than the German and Spanish media?

Pep In general, it’s the same: if you win, you are top; when we lose, it’s as though we have killed someone. All of us. Not just the managers, but the players, too. It can be ridiculous.

Johnny It’s crazy.

Pep A friend of mine who is a writer said to me: “I would rather my book was criticised or analysed than ignored.” It makes sense: I wouldn’t like to do this job with no one paying attention to what I’m doing. If the media is always talking about the club I manage, the stadium will always be full. You can’t have it all ways. I’m sure you wouldn’t like writing great songs that nobody hears.

Johnny I know what you mean, but it can go too far. People can get obsessed. When I first started playing music professionally, at the age of 18, my first proper band got big really quickly. In the end, I had to leave that band because it got too crazy.

Pep You mean the Smiths?

Johnny Yeah… it’s a long story. I left the Smiths 30 years ago and I’ve been in loads of bands since, but I’m still asked the same question all the time: when are the Smiths going to reform? I’ve tried to be gracious, I’ve tried every single answer. I’ve never got too pissed off, but I do end up saying: “Look, just Google it, man.”

Pep “Just Google it!” I like that.

Johnny You were talking earlier about your relationship with your players. Did Raheem Sterling ask for advice when he started being racially abused by other fans and targeted by the rightwing press?

Pep No, he didn’t. He’s an adult. The point is that we are never safe from these kinds of attitudes. Never. Raheem has the power to make a difference because he’s a public person and he’s playing football at a big club, as well as for his country. It’s important for the new generation to be reminded that we are never safe. There is always racism.

These kind of humanitarian issues won’t go away. Look at what is happening now in Europe. In Italy, in Britain. Populist politics are on the rise pretty much everywhere. Look at what happened in my country, in Catalonia. It’s why I wear a yellow ribbon. Our elected politicians are in exile or in prison, just for asking people to vote in a referendum in 2017. They went against the constitution, but the people wanted a chance to vote. To be heard.

But coming back to what Raheem has done… He did well to speak up, but he has no choice. I will say it again: we cannot let these things happen. We cannot accept the rise of populist politics.

Johnny Did you know before you came here that Man City had all the cool musicians?

Pep I knew there had been a boom in music here, but not much else. Now I know everything! Talking of cool musicians, will you sign my Johnny Marr vinyl? I’ll have to buy a record player now.

Johnny It’d be my pleasure. But if that turns up on eBay, Pep, I’ll know it was you. I also wanted to give you one of my plectrums.

Pep Maybe I’ll put it in my pocket and it’ll bring me luck for the rest of the season. By the way, how many guitars do you own? Millions?

Johnny Funnily enough, I was going to ask you how many grey cashmere jumpers you own.

Pep I have many. Very many! But the jerseys are easier to find than the guitars.

Johnny Before I go, I want to thank you for what you’re doing here. I’ve been a City fan since 1972. I’ve said this to Vinnie [Kompany] and some of the other players, but I’m not fixated on winning everything; I just want to see players in good shape, who really love the club. There were some good guys in the 90s, but lots were out of shape and not properly committed. I love seeing you guys try.

This is an edited extract from A Game Of Two Halves: Famous Football Fans Meet Their Heroes by Amy Raphael (Allen & Unwin, £14.99). To order a copy for £13.19, go to guardianbookshop.com. A percentage of proceeds goes to support UNHCR’s work with refugees, unhcr.org/football.

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