Why Pep Guardiola didn’t need the Champions League to solidify his legacy

Pep Guardiola’s influence over English football is pronounced. Rather than incessantly hoof the ball, goalkeepers playing on pub-league pitches sometimes bobble short passes over divots and dog turds. Bravery and brawn are no longer the most desirable qualities for a lower-league center-back – they’re expected to welcome, maybe even cherish, possession. Inverted full-backs, false nines, and other ideas hatched or enhanced in Pep’s playbook feature throughout the country’s proud, prodigious, and at-times parochial league pyramid every weekend.

Perhaps he was already the most transformative manager to grace the English game, but that didn’t mean his legacy couldn’t have been more tangible, more complete, more ostentatious. To satisfy modern fans’ obsession with the greatest – the GOATs – in sports, Guardiola apparently needed Saturday’s Champions League victory to ensure his reputation wasn’t tarnished.

For the second time in his seven-year tenure at Manchester City, Guardiola’s legacy came d

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