“For a guy who stands short of 6 feet and has spent the past few months holed up on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Pep Guardiola casts a huge shadow. In fact, you struggle to remember the last time a manager’s absence from the big time caused so much buzz around the game. Conventional wisdom has it that he can write his own ticket. And, in fact, he just about can. He could phone up just about any club in the world, say, ‘Hey, I’d like to be in charge there next year, what do you reckon?’ and you could probably count on one hand the clubs that would not return his call.” ESPN