Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho. What do these two names remind you of? Maybe you could say a lot of trophies, silverware, titles etc. Sure. But the similarity ends right here. What about the differences? I would say, in simplest way- perfection and beauty vs pragmatism and cynicism. One believes in doing things the beautiful way, the other in strictly getting results. For Guardiola, not just winning, but winning “his” way is most important. For Jose, the end justifies the means. 
So what is “Good” football? Is there a right way of playing? Can it resemble Art? What do these two managers stand for? Should results be the only way of “judging”? These are the questions I wanted to address for quite a long. So let’s try to delve into this issue a bit.    

In a sport like Football, winning is considered of ultimate importance. But is winning trophies the only reason we watch sport? Sure, seeing our team lift the trophy is the highest pleasure. But what makes a team “Our team”? 
I believe we watch sport because it transcends just “results”. Pep once said, “In the end titles are just numbers and numbers are boring”. We watch Football because we expect something more than just winning. 

Suppose a team keeps on moving the ball the same way, puts in a lot of crosses or keeps on taking the shots to an extent that it becomes repetitive. Will we really enjoy this for a long time? 
Not really. Human mind is not linear, one-dimensional. Quoting Albert Camus; how can you expect someone to enjoy watching the same rain fall the same way on same canal? Because we expect something new to watch, something which would entertain us. Something refreshing. And that precisely is where the notion of “Good” Football comes into the picture. 

The notion of art today is very general. Today we view arts as a form of self expression. And thus why can’t anything which is about expression become an art form? And hence, probably there is some room for Art to exist in Football too.

Why do we enjoy watching Messi play? What is it in his game that we love? What he does seems almost “impossible” for someone else to do. When Messi plays, mathematical concepts like Numerical superiority are rendered meaningless. We love him because he raises the game to a whole new level, on some other plane of existence. It’s ecstasy, a religious pleasure to watch. So, isn’t Messi an artist in his own right?

Arsene Wenger best sums this up- “I believe the target of anything in life should be to do it so well that it becomes an art. When you read some books they are fantastic, the writer touches something in you that you know you would not have brought out of yourself. He makes you discover something interesting in your life. If you are living like an animal, what is the point of living? What makes daily life interesting is that we try to transform it to something that is close to art.”
But then what about results? Take Netherlands 1974 for example. One of the greatest teams to grace the game, and not win a World Cup. Results are important. But to what extent? Should we belittle the contribution of these greatest teams just because they couldn’t get the results in one match?     

Pep Guardiola annoyed the press when he said-“I would rather be remembered for the football my teams play than the trophies I won”. “Perfection doesn’t exist, but you have to look for it anyway. What I want is 100% possession.” says he. Pep is trying to perfect a hand drawn circle. He knows it’s impossible, but that doesn’t stop him from trying. And maybe that provides the key to the dilemma. Once we put ourselves in Pep’s shoes, we realise that titles are just a by-product.

Cesar Luis Menotti (in picture) is another example. Menotti was one of those who saw football as a means of self expression. No wonder under Menotti, beauty and efficacy went hand in hand. Menotti liked calling his style as leftist football. Let’s not try to unnecessarily fit football into any ideology for I believe beauty in the game is a result of striving for perfection and thus it comes from cohesion and not disparity.

As Jonathan Wilson says in “Inverting the Pyramid”- “It is not even so simple, though, as to say that the ‘correct’ way of playing is the one that wins most often, for only the dourest of Gradgrinds would claim that success is measured merely in points and trophies; there must also be room for romance. That tension – between beauty and cynicism, between what Brazilians call ‘futebol d’arte’ and ‘futebol de resultados’ – is a constant, perhaps because it is so fundamental, not merely to sport, but also to life: to win, or to play the game well? It is hard to think of any significant actions that are not in some way a negotiation between the two extremes of pragmatism and idealism.”

Guardiola’s Barcelona was the epitome of beauty and results going hand in hand. To me, that’s how football should be. Results are OK. But more than that, Pep stands for beauty and not results, perfection and not pragmatism. 

That’s Josep Guardiola, constantly looking to evolve, to change and attain perfection, even if it doesn’t exist. A modern day philosopher who has changed the idea of Football and how we watch the game…

In the end- “Quality without results is pointless, results without quality are boring.”- Johan Cruijff