Thought For The Day – Thursday 21^st May 2026

Pictured above:  The inspirational and outstanding Year 11 G.C.S.E. Art Exhibition 2026.  Students showing great passion for, and pride in, their intense and innovative studies and work.

“Teachers and doctors have to be the most important people in society, not managers.” (Pep Guardiola, press conference, February 2026)

On Sunday, in East Manchester,  it will be Josep “Pep” Guardiola’s 593^rd game as Manchester City men’s football manager, very appropriately surpassing the management record at the famous and iconic Manchester City Football Club by one game.

Pep Guardiola, a sporting artist as a player, manager and coach,  has massively inspired sport and life.

Pep Guardiola has been and is an innovator as a coach and manager. Playing out from defence.  Inverted full backs and wingers. False nines. The carousel passing.

As regards “the beautiful game” of football, the influence and inspiration of Pep Guardiola is evidenced at every level:  through the leagues; and on pitches in the parks.  Grass roots literally.

It certainly was highly appropriate that Pep Guardiola recently chose to attend Stockport County versus Leyton Orient, in League One, and not Bayern Munich versus Paris Saint Germain, in the Champions League.

Pep Guardiola is intense.  After his first season as Manchester City men’s football team manager, Pep Guardiola reflected that the team needed to score more than one goal in each match to secure victories, so competitive were the matches.

In his career, Pep Guardiola has always stood up against negative prejudice and negative discrimination. He has very importantly also never forgotten his roots, often returning home. A proud Catalan, Pep was born in the town of Santpedor, near the beautiful city of Barcelona, in the region of Catalonia. Catalonia is an area with a culture,  language, and spirit of its own.

Whilst, when women’s and men’s football teams play Barcelona,  the city of the artist and architect Gaudi, they play a culture.  Their motto is: “Més que un club”, meaning more than a club.

Though a former international player with Spain, and a fine midfielder with Barcelona, it was a surprise when the then Barcelona “B” team manager, a playing graduate of their famous “La Masia” Academy, was promoted to manage and coach the first team in 2008.

But then, as now, Pep Guardiola has created and inspired, and creates and inspires, art on the field through intensity and innovation, through passion and pride in the work and for the life.

Like the Year 11 G.C.S.E. Art students of 2026.