Occasionally, Luis Enrique or his representatives from the years would travel to London for discussions with leading Premier League clubs and at least once for exploratory discussions about taking over our oppressed national team.
The reaction of the Bigwigs became depressing: 'He expects to have the management of everything. Who the hell does this man think? Alex Ferguson? '
That is why Sir Alex, who recognized one of his own characteristics, was planned to be recommended as one of his possible successors at Manchester United.
That idea, a lunch in Mayfair's Les Ambassadeurs Club, would come across the same roadblock of Corporate Buffoonery.
The loss is English football. A failure of the vision illuminates due to the dazzling version under the iron command of Enrique, so that Paris Saint-Germain broke the last score record of the Champions League with a 5-0 demolition of Inter Milan.
How beautiful ironic that it should be the most autocratic of all ownerships that arc for Enrique's demand for total control over all things of football. After purchasing this PSG locking, broth and oil till, this Qatari consortium found their ambition to only be the reach of wealth. Shameless. Until in despair Enrique names on his strict, absolute conditions.
Yes, his salary was huge – but not the most important factor. No interference was the rule that mattered. Not with team selection. Not with play systems. Not with transfers. Not with discipline. In less than 22 months, Enrique has supplied two Ligue 1 titles, two French cups and, the most brilliant and vital of all, their first Champions League.
Enrique is described as stubborn, arrogant, convinced that he is always the same and obsessive. Try Genius – that's the truth. That is why he joined Pep Guardiola as one of only two managers who won the Treble twice. In his case, first with Barcelona, ​​for whom he was a wonderful player. Now with PSG.
One of his first actions upon arrival in Paris in 2023 was to tell his team that he was approved Kylian Mbappe who was sold to Real Madrid: “Kylian is excellent, but you will be a better team without him.” The evidence was there in Munich.
There have been no superstar purchases, such as Neymar and Lionel Messi. The last of whom he bumped into Barcelona about which of them should have the greatest power in that club. Since their farewell, Messi has said: “The two best coaches I played for are Pep and Luis.”
Guardiola says: “Of the many great teams I have managed, the Barcelona of Luis and the Liverpool of (Jurgen) Klopp are the most difficult.”
The characteristic of his PSG team was clearly in the final when they celebrated as an expropriated tackle as enthusiastic as one of their five goals. The Paris of d'Artagnan and his three musketeers would have identified themselves with their motto: everything for one and one for everyone.
For a man they have dedicated to Enrique's requirements. As such, they have developed in no time from a collection of big names to a formidable force. There are signs of a Champions League Dynasty in the making. Assuming that four years is enough to determine such an inheritance.
Just like Jose Mourinho, Enrique has collected his trophies while he does not stay longer than that employer. So is the way with the most high-impact managers. Only as long can most groups of players stay fresh and enthusiastic in an atmosphere of such intensity, sacrifice, courage, endurance and fanaticism. It is not the physical tension under which they wilt, but the psychological.
Under the Multi-Champions League-winning managers of the modern era, only Carlo Ancelotti, who stands alone to claim it five times, and Ferguson has remained in one place for eight years or more. With Ancelotti that was early in his career at Milan. Even he could not end the Champions League -Droogte during his two years at PSG.
Just like Ferguson in United, Klopp made a slow start in Liverpool, but held on to landing silverware in his last four seasons. Then he felt his influence decreasing and left. In contrast to Ferguson, who continued to perform miracles of team reconstruction and re -recording of players. Partly that his perception of when star players had to be released – Ruud van Nistelrooy, Eric Cantona, David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo – and also his instinct about who needed roles and who needed an arm around the shoulder.
There was a hint of that insight about Enrique when he said at the height of one dispute with Messi: “I don't treat all my players the same, just like I don't treat all my children the same thing. On some things I am tolerant and on some I ask. But there are some rules that everyone must follow. That is one of my principles. '
The four-year principle is that it is probably Arsenal, since Mikel Arteta enters his fifth and a half season as a manager with just a FA cup to show it. The series of second places in the competition suggest a Gareth Southgate-like falter when it comes to exceeding the line. For how many longer will his players continue to believe with so little return?
Arsenal belonged to the English clubs that Staak the demands of Enrique. They are perhaps to many who now ask if Arteta would like to reconsider his answer to the question, about which the best team was in the Champions League of this season.
The loss of Enrique was not only for the Premier League, but has already felt by England and is in danger of becoming even more consequences.
During the enchantment of Enrique charged with Spain-tragic interrupted and then terminated by the death of his youngest daughter Xana, by bone cancer, he led the basis for revising the style of Spanish football that has already led to the full exclusion of England in the Euro 2024 final (result: 2-1 on 4-1).
Spain, not England, are now favorites for the World Cup of next summer in America, with their New-Age Football.
The press and pass-pass football from Guardiola, successful and imitated as it has been, comes at the end of his time. It is in the grip of displaced by Spain's urgent, passing, plus pace and penetration.
There is no liter in the world of Enrique. The possession of the property is regained to use immediately by passing precision to teammates who sprint to dissect defenses and explode on the goal. Not only very effective but extremely exciting.
Come on England. The father of the future of football will now be only 58 three years – if there will be a euro to win.