Ask people a question: How many of us still remember the victory of “trebles” of Pep Guardiola and Man City season 2022/23? Perhaps quite little, because sometimes it is considered “all random” …
When actor Keanu Reeves participated in promoting the movie “Bill & Ted Face the Music” in 2020, he was asked to explain the tension in the plot.
In essence, the film is a story that faces death: Bill and Ted have failed to compose a song that can unite the world, which has serious consequences for them and their families. Now, they have to compose that music to save the whole universe. If not, all will collapse.
After giving a half -joke in the style of his Ted character, Reeves was asked by the host Stephen Colbert a more serious question: “What do you think will happen when we die?”.
Reeves leaned back, took a deep breath, thought for a moment and then answered deeply: “I know those who love us will remember us.”
A sweet and emotional saying.
However, coach Pep Guardiola of Man City did not seem to agree with that view. In the press conference before the FA Cup final in May, the Spanish strategist was not asked the same question as Reeves, but he also shared his life and heritage so far.
“When we die,” he said. “The family will cry for 2 or 3 days, then that's it – you will be forgotten. In the training career, there are good people and not good people, it is important that good people are remembered.”
The position of Guardiola in football history has been guaranteed. He won many “trebles”, who was given to change the face of modern football. During Pep working in La Liga and Bundesliga, Spain and Germany both won the World Cup – a clear sign of the influence of the 54 -year -old captain. England has not done that yet. Perhaps next year, in the US?
However, whether “the Three Lions” was successful or not, 8 years of Guardiola led Man City has changed the situation of football in the land of fog. However, his gloomy view of the memorization seemed to be affected by a part of football that was too quickly forgotten the “treble” of Man City in Istanbul in 2023.
How many of the forgotten part is because of Man City – because they “should have been doing it for a long time”? How much is due to the serious decline in our ability to memorize in the digital era? As the schedule is getting more and more dense, the teams play more and the break between seasons, football is probably entering the era of “digital memory loss” – the phenomenon of huge amount of information on the internet makes human memory become less sharp.
Each match gradually becomes a short video on Instagram or Tiktok. We glance, smile or laugh, share, then forget. Then continue to surf. Wydad, Al Ain and, oh, Juventus.
Did they met each other in December last year? Yes, in the new form of the Champions League – the class of classification. It feels like the story of the previous season, right? Dusan Vlahovic scored. So is Weston McKennie. Do you still remember?
Before the match against Juventus in Orlando, Guardiola was asked by a republish reporter of La Repubblica and the level he wanted to win the championship.
“Well, now we are here, we want to play well. But I don't know,” he answered in Italian. “Maybe after 2 or 3 days of finishing the tournament, people will forget it.”
Covered by dust, time, swept away by the Scirocco's desert breeze of the new season, leaving only the pale yellow light of the Tiffany trophy deeply under the sand when the opening day of the Premier League with a trip to Wolves on August 16 was approaching.
If Man City won the Club World Cup, it would be an internal pride in the club. Song Guardiola is probably right. With the new nature of the tournament and the way it is overlooked in England, this title will probably not be considered a terrible achievement.
Partly because of the British “island nation” thinking: they believe that the Premier League is the best tournament, and its only counterweight is only the Champions League, not the World Cup Club. At least not.
“I think we should not live with the psychology that we can remember or not,” Guardiola said in an interview in that May.
So what is the purpose? Why did he renew the contract with Man City for another 2 years? Will Guardiola continue to work because he didn't know what to do but football? Or do you find something deeper than the memory?
After a 5-2 victory over Juventus, Guardiola said the students sent a message to themselves. The challenge of the upcoming season, he added, is to regenerate himself. Whether people remember Man City's season or not is something he cannot control. But the 6-0 victory over Wydad and 2-0 against Al Ain, even though it would be forgotten quickly, was still part of the process he was directing.
The bigger question is for ourselves, and for the football schedule: less is still much better. Meaning is not in quantity, but in the selected things. Not only is memory loss, but also nostalgia for the old years: shorter World Cup, shorter seasons, tournaments really gather the strongest teams from continents.
If football is “dead”, what will happen? Of course it will not die. The game will continue. But if that happens, those who love football will probably remember the days that are said to be more glorious, when the memories are created as memories that can live forever.
