Guardiola the GOAT? Beyond the billions he has changed world football

Stratified nature of modern era makes comparing legacies difficult but the Manchester City manager has made his case

THE GREAT: Erling Haaland during Man City training in Istanbul.

Istanbul Is The New Cool. Or at least it is according to the city’s latest tourism advert, a collage of chic, blasè young people parkouring down Byzantine streets, goofing about next to Ottoman palaces and generally having a hyper-chilled time. Hmmm. Istanbul: meet Pep.

Famously Manchester City’s manager is too stressed, too wired, too unshakeably uncool to eat before kick-off on match days, restricting himself to a few grudging cubes of cheese late into the night. That man in the skinny black jeans with the maniacally whirling arms, out there on his touchline looking like the outlaw general of a mercenary private army signalling attack formations to his personal helicopter gunship? He’s not actually feeling that cool.