“Guardiola did football a lot of harm" - When Lionel Messi made surprise claims to praise Manchester City manager 

Lionel Messi hilariously claimed in 2022 that Pep Guardiola had ruined football. He stated that the Manchester City manager made his expansive football look easy and made everyone copy it.

Speaking to Movistar Plus, Messi stated that the manager was probably the best coach he had worked under. The two formed a legendary partnership at Barcelona. He added that the former Bayern Munich coach was responsible for every other manager trying to copy his style and ruin the game. He said:

"Guardiola did football a lot of harm. It seemed so easy and so simple that everyone wanted to copy it afterwards. Later I met a lot of Guardiolas out there and you realize what we did and what that was. Probably the best coach I've ever had, Guardiola has something special to prepare for matches and to communicate them."

Lionel Messi played 219 matches under Pep Guardiola at Barcelona. He scored 211 goals and assisted 94 times in all competitions.

Tim Howard echoes Lionel Messi's thoughts about Pep Guardiola

Tim Howard spoke to Jamie Carragher last month and stated that Pep Guardiola has ruined football. He echoed Lionel Messi's thoughts and stated that the manager made everyone believe they can play expansive football and said:

"What [former US manager] Gregg Berhalter did was, you look back at my generation and we were just a bunch of tough, rugged guys, we had a couple of match-winners. He [Berhalter] got this team to believe that they could compete, be expansive and play well in the forward areas. I think what happened was, in all ways, Pep Guardiola has ruined football. Pep Guardiola has taught everybody that they can play expansive football. They can't."

"Not everybody can do it. Three teams in the world can do it really well and so I think you have to be resolute at times. When you look at Pochettino's best teams, when I look at his Tottenham teams, it was two banks of four plus two at the top and then when they broke, they broke with four players, they allowed them to express themselves and then ultimately they were rock-solid defensively or at least tried to be."

Lionel Messi and Guardiola have ruled out a return to Barcelona. Both have stated that the chapter is done in their career and they are not thinking of a return.