Illalla kahden managerivelhon kohtaaminen, eli hyvä aika tälle tarinalle:
"At the age of 32 and during a difficult season with Roma, Guardiola was told by Argentina international Gabriel Batistuta ‘if you want to be a coach, you have to get together with this guy’.
The ‘guy’ in person was none other than Bruce, yet it took the Spaniard three more years to finally meet him.
As his career reached a lull at Mexican side Dorados de Sinaloa, Guardiola made the 5,000-mile journey to West Midlands to visit Bruce. According to Tim Rich the Birmingham boss and Guardiola talked about all things football over a gorgeously well-prepared barbeque – tactics, teams and anecdotes from their respective careers.
The politics and practicalities of management were also discussed, like dealing with the press. Bruce explained why he never gave exclusive interviews, only press conferences.
He said: “Why am I going to give an interview to a journalist at a powerful paper and deny one to a little reporter from the provinces? What’s the criterion?”
To this day, Guardiola does not do exclusives. Instead, he chooses to speak to every journalist present at a conference.
Then, Bruce turned to Guardiola: “Why do you, who knows about all the garbage in football; the dishonesty of people in the game, want to return to that environment and manage? Do you like blood so much?”
Guardiola replied: “I need that blood”.
Javi Martinez revealed the admiration extended beyond simple face-to-face meetings, as Guardiola would ask about Bruce while the pair were at Bayern Munich.
“When I was training under Pep, he came to me again and again and asked me about my time with Bruce,” the midfielder told Goal.
“He wanted to know how Bruce trained, how he dealt with players – but this respect is mutual.
“Pep admires Bruce. Bruce admires Pep.”"