Cruyff defends Guardiola record at Man City
Guardiola is a disciple of Jordi Cruyff's late father, Johan
Written by Simon Austin — September 4, 2017
JORDI CRUYFF insists Pep Guardiola is still continuing his father’s legacy despite his record with homegrown players at Manchester City.
Guardiola has always said he is a disciple of the late Johan Cruyff, under whom he played for eight years at Barcelona. The Dutchman's philosophy was based on a beautiful style of play and developing young players.
However, Guardiola has not promoted a single Academy player to the first team since taking over at the Etihad last summer. And last week he sold 17-year-old Jadon Sancho, widely regarded as the club’s brightest young prospect, to Borussia Dortmund for £8million.
Jordi Cruyff, who is Sporting Director at Maccabi Tel Aviv, defended Guardiola’s record at City.
“Well I think academies are a long story,” he said at the Soccerex conference. “It’s not just I am coaching a player of 16 and in two years he will be a top player.
“Youth is from the age of seven, eight years old until the age of 18, 19 and you are ready or not. When you bring in a new Academy director you cannot ask for results in one or two years, only the results are visible after three to five years.
“But I also think City have a little bit of pressure to get immediate results. I don’t think the fans would be very happy to wait 10 years to get a result.
“Sometimes you have that kind of pressure. If I see the last home game of City when they played with 10 against Everton come on, it was a beautiful game to see, still trying to dominate an opponent with 11 players and even coming from one behind.
“I think they are still obviously making steps forward but don’t underestimate when you play against Barcelona if Messi has a good day there are not many systems that can stop him. With Man City, if you analyse the last years, I certainly think from the outside there is a growing pattern.”
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