What makes Pep Guardiola different from other coaches, from one of his protégés: ‘If it’s not perfect, he gives you a look that stays with you’

The messages kept pinging and a trickle became a flood. Friends from across the water in Cork were loving Brian Barry-Murphy’s ribs.

He was something of a tactical upstart when he took over as manager at Rochdale five years ago. His Total Football, the ruthless pursuit of possession dominance, was so startling in League One that his team went viral on social media, amplified by romantic cup ties, including a draw at Old Trafford.

Barry-Murphy briefly became one of the most talked about young coaches in the game and the Cork lads saw it. The Irish way is to playfully nip any grandeur in the bud and so the texts came flooding in.

They laughed at him for making fashionable displays but not winning any points and joked that he would soon be ‘home’ with his tail between his legs. They were half right – a youthful Rochdale suffered relegation.

And then there was another claim: ‘You’ve been too busy watching your husband at Manchester City.’

Brian Barry-Murphy is on the rise after a successful stint under Pep Guardiola

He led Man City’s Under 21 team to two consecutive PL 2 titles before leaving in the summer

He describes Guardiola as ‘incredible’ to work under, allowing him to ‘evolve’ tactically

Yer man would soon become Barry-Murphy’s boss. He worked for Pep Guardiola from 2021 until he left City this summer. As head coach of the Under-21s, he helped with first-team training, studying Guardiola and taking notes.

It was a front row seat to the greatest period of superiority English football has seen in a long time and it also played a key role in the growth of Cole Palmer, Oscar Bobb and Rico Lewis.

Barry-Murphy would never say this himself, but the man who looked after the children saw his role within Guardiola’s inner circle grow, becoming more hands-on and involved with each passing week.

Guardiola leaned heavily on him for character references for the teenagers coming up, just as he did with his predecessor, Enzo Maresca. The guy has done well for himself since then and Barry-Murphy now wants a piece of it for himself.

An engaging conversationalist who can talk at 100mph, he doesn’t really delve into City’s tactical genius, but looks back on a period that is likely to shape his future career.

“I have a theory that I recently explained to my wife[TV presenter Sarah-Jane Crawford],” he says. “Pep has an incredible ability to make you want to please him. I see it in my children, you know, when you’re looking for attention from your mother or father?

“He has a great personal touch that makes you feel great. It’s tied to how good he is. You want to feel like you’re contributing to what he’s doing. He might ask you to do the simplest thing and when you do it right and he says ‘perfect,’ you feel like your life is complete.

“Then there are other days when he doesn’t quite get what he wants and you feel like you’ve let him down. You may not deserve praise and at the time it may seem like he doesn’t appreciate what you’re doing, but he does it in a way — and I don’t know if it’s conscious or not — that makes you want to go back the next day and do it perfectly.

‘This way of training that he does is liberating, empowering. There’s so much tactical innovation, an obsession with tactics’

Barry-Murphy resigned after relegation with Rochdale but was praised for his ‘total football’

He is a sought-after coach after his development under Guardiola and was linked with the Preston North End job after Ryan Lowe (pictured) left

“There were a couple of days I was practicing with them and my serve just wasn’t right. If it’s not perfect, he gives you the look. He doesn’t say anything. He lives with you until you can make it right.

“I think it has to be like that for the players. He is patient with those who have a good posture, but when he sees you receiving the ball with the wrong body shape, you see him at his most intense. He will show you.

“If there’s something he doesn’t like about a play that’s designed to replicate the game, he jumps in. That’s it in a nutshell. He’s mind-blowing. No matter how good you think he is, he’s better.”

This is a fascinating moment in Barry-Murphy’s company. He has followed Maresca’s rise closely, first at Leicester and now at Chelsea. He is also aware of what Mikel Arteta has picked up from Guardiola and taken with him into Arsenal’s resurgence.

Vincent Kompany’s trajectory is a little different, as the Bayern Munich manager never coached at City, but it does make you think. So many of those who have close contact with Guardiola go on to achieve success.

There is no reason why Barry-Murphy can’t match that. He wants a challenge and has set no geographical boundaries.

“Anywhere in the world,” he says. “If I see it and I like it, I’ll go. I got into management. I became manager of Rochdale because my friend (Keith Hill) got sacked. I had a clear idea of ​​what I wanted to do, but I didn’t always know how to do it.

‘I remember Txiki (Begiristain, City’s sporting director) saying to me that you talk so much about what you do and how you do it that people don’t want to hear it.

Mikel Arteta has had a progressive period at Arsenal after becoming a protégé of Guardiola

After working under Guardiola, Enzo Maresca was promoted to Leicester, giving him a chance at the Chelsea job

“Pep has this incredible ability to make you want to please him,” Barry-Murphy told his wife, Sarah-Jane Crawford

‘If you keep talking about the way you play, nobody cares when you’re on a losing streak. Sometimes I felt, looking back, that at Rochdale I spent too much time talking about style.

‘You never see a manager say, “Well, I don’t want the ball and I don’t want to press”. Everyone wants that, but they don’t always know how, do they? I’ve learned to attack more efficiently. I’ve evolved to make sure that the football you see when I go back isn’t boring.’

Begiristain became an unlikely mentor for Barry-Murphy. In 2023, after the Under-21s won a third consecutive league title, he asked him to stay for another 12 months and then promised the club would release him.

It was an inspired decision, given how Guardiola had increasingly gravitated towards the Irishman, who was given a few extra months to soak up the magic of City’s fourth league title.

“When I joined, I knew instinctively, 100 percent, that it was the right decision,” he says. “The club said I would get the chance to work with Pep every day. I thought, ‘I’ll never get this chance again.’

“He has an incredible aura, a presence. He can be very sensitive and have that empathy when you might not expect it. That’s why he gets so much credit when he demands so much from you. It’s incredible.

‘We had a baby after a miscarriage. The way he treated me and my wife was unbelievable.

‘He barely knew me, it was when I first arrived. When I arrived I was an ex-manager of Rochdale who had run them down. He made me feel like I was right there – him and Manel (Estiarte, head of player support) were like that from day one.’

Barry-Murphy praises Guardiola for his empathy and focus on basic technical skills

It’s easy to assume that any manager can get a lot out of three years alongside Guardiola, but what does that look like in practice?

As Barry-Murphy reasons, you can’t see inside the man’s head, so there has to be something visibly tangible. The Sunday Sessions provide that.

“Those who didn’t play for the seniors and the Under-21s used to get together for a session on Sundays,” he says. “It’s a very individual thing for Pep, it’s brilliant. I’ve heard of clubs where the younger players are competing but never when it’s so interwoven and so involved.

“He’s always there on Sundays, always. He wants to see them, how they react. He doesn’t miss a trick. The way he works is class. This way of training that he does is liberating, empowering. It gives you the belief that what he asks of you, you’ve trained it time and time again. There’s so much tactical innovation, an obsession with tactics.

“What people don’t see is that Pep works from day one of pre-season from scratch on the simplest technical action. I’ve seen players who think pre-season is relatively easy and I find that interesting. It’s just his way, he builds.

“It’s that focus on repetition of the simple things. When Rico Lewis plays inside, he’s done a million passing drills, so he’s got that repetition. When he gets possession in drills, it’s exactly the same position as in a game.

“It’s like golf. You get that swing from spending hours on the driving range.”

Barry-Murphy is ready to hit the ground running himself and now has a few extra clubs in his bag.