Here’s what Pep Guardiola can learn from Sir Alex Ferguson about how to rescue Man City, writes IAN HERBERT

On a bitterly cold night in the depths of Ukraine five years ago, after Manchester City's routine 3-0 Champions League victory over Shakhtar Donetsk, Pep Guardiola was asked by a local journalist whether he would be averse to properly treating himself. to the test by leading one of the beleaguered teams. the country's teams.

He gave a joking response about the local property market before declaring that managing such a place would be 'no problem'. No problem at all.'

The idea of ​​Guardiola taking charge despite setbacks has, of course, always been a purely theoretical concept. Producers of a new, soft-focus Manchester City documentary about the club's fourth consecutive title last season – '4-in-a-row' – are careful with the truth in a section called 'The Slump', conveniently leaving out a 3-0. win at Old Trafford and 6-1 hammering of Bournemouth to maintain the dramatic tension. It's not easy to make compelling films about a football machine.

This time it's really a disappointment. One that leaves coaches up and down the country who have marveled at Guardiola's teams now looking at his position and wondering: 'Can Pep get out of a crisis?' We're about to find out if he can pass the biggest test of football management.

The great managers have handled these types of situations by taking squads apart and starting over. Bill Shankly, appointed at Liverpool 65 years ago this week, sold the core of his 1960s team after a 1970 FA Cup defeat to Watford. Sir Alex Ferguson responded to Manchester United's dethronement as double winners in 1994-95 by selling Paul Ince, Mark Hughes and Andrei Kanchelskis and moving on from what became known as the Class of '92. The Manchester Evening News conducted a fan poll about Ferguson that summer. The majority wanted him fired.

Shankly had held on to his first team for too long. It is a common affliction among the greats, including Jurgen Klopp after Liverpool ended their 30-year title quest and now Guardiola, who manages the third oldest squad in the Premier League, with 12 players aged 29 or over; nine of them are in their thirties.

Guardiola needs the same rebuilding as Shankly and Ferguson and a parting gift from his old friend Txiki Begiristain, City's outgoing sporting director, could be two recruits next month. Real Sociedad's Martin Zubimendi would solve the Rodri problem.

In midfield you can think of Atalanta's Ederson and Crystal Palace's Adam Wharton, and in attack Ipswich Town's Liam Delap, whose sale by City now seems hasty. There is a buyback clause. In defence: Everton's Jarrad Branthwaite and Real Valladolid's Juma Bah.

But after 16 years of turning well-rounded player groups into great teams, Guardiola now needs skills that money can't help: building confidence in a place of fragility, nurturing risk-taking from today's restraint, and acting as the heat of the players. deflector amid the constant struggle, seeing talent in players where others don't, and living with the fact that they – and this – will take time. These are all the true characteristics of the best managers.

It is completely unknown territory for him. There was a very brief moment in his first season at Bayern, but he has never had such a deep crisis in his job, because he normally never sticks around for so long.

Two fascinating, unguarded interviews conducted by Guardiola with the Men in Blazers podcast offer the best insight into what goes on in his complicated inner mind.

Significantly, Guardiola tells presenter Roger Bennett that he is 'afraid' that his voice will not ultimately be heard in the same way by his players, 'after eight years with the same message'. He reflects that 'there is no book that tells you what to do after eight years'.

The '4-in-a-row' film projects an air of light-hearted invincibility in some players, which reflects exactly the complacency Guardiola was talking about.

When Kyle Walker, part of the old defense now scoring goals, decides not to move to Bayern Munich, a staged scene ensues in which he says via a City TV microphone to scenes of unbridled ecstasy among his teammates: “I'm not to go. The show goes on. This is my home.'

Overconfidence. And there was more of the same from Ruben Dias at Anfield on Sunday when asked how City dealt with the defeat.

“You know you're talking to one of the players from one of the teams in the world that has won the most in recent years?” Dias replied. “So maybe you should think about that and make sure we know how to deal with it. This is just part of our legacy.”

Guardiola's interviews with Bennett suggest that, without a managerial colleague in football, Guardiola is looking to other sports and their leaders.

The work of Steve Kerr, coach of the all-conquering NBA team Golden State Warriors, with whom he worked, has clearly left an impression. Guardiola says this was also the reaction of Olympic table tennis players – 'table tennis', as he calls it – when he saw some of them miss out on gold by just one point this summer. “The look in their eyes,” he says. 'Watching this inspires me more than tactics.' He is fascinated by defeat.

A conversation with Ferguson – who had a taste for failure both as a player and as a manager – could be a starting point.

And it's safe to say the old man would tell Guardiola it starts with psychology: circling the wagons, turning the storm at the door into a weapon and doing it with urgency.

“It's like getting a little tear in your coat,” Ferguson once said about periods of crisis. 'If you don't have that tear sewn up immediately, it will only get worse.'

Slot is a different animal than Klopp

It was striking how little the cameras panned on Arne Slot, the quiet man, at Anfield on Sunday, and his press conferences are also in a different universe than Jurgen Klopp's theater.

But Slot's explanation on Tuesday about why Mo Salah thinks he may have played his last game against City at Anfield: 'Maybe Mo knows more about the 115 charges, so he expects them not to be there next season! It was a joke, I repeat a joke!' – revealed the wry humor within.

This feels more and more like Bob Paisley's follow-up to Bill Shankly every week.

Keegan always led from the front

A new book called Panini Legends (Bloomsbury, £16.99) from leading authority on stickers, Greg Lansdowne, charts the changing appearances of football legends as depicted on their stickers. The fascinating evolution of hairstyles demonstrates the effort put in by foolish people.

Ronaldinho, Lothar Matthaus and Michel Platini really did their best. But Kevin Keegan is the best choice for me. Always a full head of hair and almost always loudly behaved.

Everton stars let Dyche down

The last ever Merseyside derby at Goodison Park on Saturday afternoon will be a wonderful celebration of the grand old stadium. What a shame that the players' atrocious display at Old Trafford last weekend means Sean Dyche comes into the match under a different cloud.

Dyche has helped the club through very challenging times in a way that very few others could, refusing to throw his players under the bus despite their capitulation against average Manchester United. They abandoned him. He deserves much better.