Could it be that we are seeing the first public cracks in the previously impenetrable aura of perfectness that surrounds Pep Guardiola?

It’s still early days for the Spaniard in terms of his Premier League managerial career. And I remain relatively certain that he will eventually enjoy success at the Etihad.

But last week we saw some pretty clear indications that football’s greatest* manager is feeling the pressure that comes with running a team in a competitive league as opposed to the forgone conclusion leagues he has worked in before.

Since watching his side make hard work of beating Burnley, Guardiola has been moaning about all sorts of things – from the Christmas fixture list to top-flight referees to the pace and physicality of the English game.

Worse than that, however, is the fact that this whingeing has come with an air of superiority – he is starting to sound like a man who looks down on English football as if it is the poor man’s version of the beautiful game.

He has also started talking about retiring from football – even though at 45 he is little more than a managerial teenager. Not a topic you would expect to be brought up by a man in his prime.

Try as I might – and I have to admit I haven’t tried very hard – I can’t see all this as anything other than sour grapes. You can bet your last buck there would have been nothing but festive happiness coming out of Guardiola’s mouth over Christmas if City were nine points clear at the top of the table.

The problem is things haven’t really gone according to plan for the Spaniard.

I suspect he assumed his management style – which I am not belittling in the slightest as it does make for some pretty football – would work just as well in England as it did in Spain and Germany. He thought he could copy and paste his tactical blueprint and sit back while the trophies rolled in.

But the reality is turning out to be quite different. The system and style that worked well in Spain (where he happened to have the world’s best player) and Germany (where he happened to have no competition) has not translated perfectly well to English football where anyone can beat anyone on their day.

To win things in the English Premier League a team needs to have a steely core and the ability to fall back on Plans B and C when Plan A is going pear shaped. If Guardiola comes to terms with this and acknowledges that pretty football and passing out from defence is not going to win every game, there is a good chance he will add more trophies to his impressive collection.

However, in the meantime he would be well advised not to become one of those managers who blames everyone and everything else for his failings. Equally, publicly hinting that he believes English football is inferior is not advisable.

Doing those things is a recipe for failure, with side orders of ridicule and public hatred.

* As defined by other sports writers who believe the sun shines out of Guardiola’s bottom.

From Bayern to the Championship

Paul Clement’s decision to take over at Swansea City is exceptionally brave.

Leaving your position as an assistant manager to take over as manager sounds like a no-brainer at face value.

However, when you consider where Clement was – Bayern Munich – and where he has gone, the move becomes considerably less attractive.

In Germany he was all but guaranteed success, domestically and possibly in the Champions League too. Admittedly he was playing second fiddle to Carlos Ancelotti, but some of the glory would have undoubtedly filtered down to him.

More importantly, at Bayern he was learning a lot about how to manage at the highest level from a man who has been there and done it, and bought a whole lot of T-shirts.

Clement has given that up to take over a football club in turmoil. Swansea are locked in a relegation battle, are on their third manager of the season, and have new American owners who seem to know as much about football as the average stick of rhubarb.

To win the EPL a team needs the ability to fall back on Plans B and C when Plan A is going pear shaped

I understand Clement’s desire for a fresh challenge. Equally I get the fact that he wants to be a manager in his own right and not keep playing second fiddle (he has been assistant at Bayern, Chelsea, PSG and Real Madrid).

But you have to wonder if he has let those desires cloud his judgement a little by agreeing to take over a club that is, while not yet in full-blown crisis, teetering on the brink of one.

As things stand there is a very good chance he will end up taking Swansea down to the Championship. And, once there, given the high levels of competition in the second tier, getting back up again will be no walk in the park.

And that will undoubtedly see him fired by owners who signed up for the glamorous skirmishes of the top flight, not the unforgiving battlefields of the Championship.

Having said that, Clement obviously believes in himself and thinks he has what it takes to save Swansea from the drop. Do that and his career will go from strength to strength.

Fail, however, and there is every chance he will become just another promising young English manager who was chewed up and spat out by the Premier League monster.

That losing Phelan

Talking of English managers being regurgitated, what about Mike Phelan at Hull City?

He took over a role that nobody else wanted, at a club that not even the owners wanted.

When he arrived they only had 13 first team players and he was given a tenner to spend in the transfer market, with the owners expecting enough change for a nice pub lunch.

Yet despite all that, Phelan got a few good results at the start of the season and was even Manager of the Month in August. True, things haven’t gone particularly well since then, in terms of results, but the performances have been encouraging.

Yet Hull’s owners, with staggering delusions of grandeur, fired him last week in favour of Marco Silva, a man with a great record of managing in England and a legend at saving clubs from Premiership relegation. Oh wait, I must be thinking of someone else.

Honestly speaking, unless they had plans to tempt Sam Allardyce away from Crystal Palace and bring in Tony Pulis as his assistant with Sir Alex Ferguson as director of football, I don’t think survival was ever going to be an option.

Hull will go down this season whoever is in charge. If they had had the common decency to accept that fact they could have held on to a manager who has the skills to bring them back up again…

Instead they have someone with a nicely exotic name.

How predictable.

Don’t worry lads, Jack’s playing…

Sometimes football throws up some unwanted records, like the one involving Sunderland midfielder Jack Rodwell.

Since the England international moved to the Stadium of Light in 2014 on a £10 million deal from Manchester City, he has started 34 games for his new club.

Sunderland haven’t won a single one of them.

Rodwell was in the starting line up last Sunday when his team drew 2-2 with Liverpool. And that means Sunderland have drawn 16 and lost 18 of the games Rodwell has started.

Somewhat worryingly for the lad, Sunderland have actually won games when Rodwell has come on as substitute.

But that doesn’t do a great deal to detract from his label as being a bit of a jinx. Opponents must look out for his name on the team sheet and do a little dressing room jig when they find it there.

There is some small consolation for Rodwell – he is at least in good company. A certain Gareth Bale was also a bit of a jinx for Tottenham Hotspur earlier in his career – with the club not winning any of the first 22 games he started for them.

As jinxes go, Mr Bale isn’t a bad one to model yourself on…

sportscolumnist@timesofmalta.com
Twitter: @maltablade