http://0rz.tw/aj4kF Move over Jose, there is a new Special One By GRAHAM HUNTER Expert on Spanish football THE Roman night was hot and sultry. Manchester United players lay drained, drenched in sweat and despondent on the pitch, and a handsome young Iberian leader of men broke into a gleeful jig of victory. It could have been Jose “The Special One” Mourinho after any of his most daring or defiant victories over Sir Alex Ferguson with Porto or Chelsea — but it wasn’t. This was the world being introduced to the impossibly precocious Barcelona manager Josep “Pep” Guardiola. He is a poet, fashion model, political thinker, father and now the annoyingly youthful champion of Europe, thanks to Wednesday’s outrageous dismantling of the Premier League winners. Aged only 38, it is little surprise the soundtrack to Barcelona’s clean sweep of trophies this season — La Liga, Copa del Rey and now snatching back the Champions League from the vaults of Old Trafford — has been Coldplay’s Viva La Vida. Just as he is still young enough to be pencil-slim and to slip his snake-hips into the coolest Italian fashion, the man who has put Jurgen Klinsmann, Guus Hiddink and now Sir Alex Ferguson to the sword this season has already shown the ability to slip into song when a phone ringtone of Rehab interrupts his Press conference. Obsessive Except for the past 12 months the chorus has been, “Yes, yes, yes” for the novice coach who had one season’s coaching experience before being handed one of the most demanding jobs in world sport last May. Guardiola, an obsessive by DNA, lives and breathes Chris Martin’s music and insisted Viva La Vida become the anthem for his team this year. They have since scored 157 goals and made even football-sceptics fall in love with the sweeping, scintillating beauty of the Spanish champs. Xavi, Wednesday's man of the match and the stuff of nightmares for Michael Carrick and Anderson in Rome, laughs: "We have loads of South Americans in our dressing room and Pep wasn't up for the samba and tango stuff they wanted to play so he introduced Coldplay, who he adores. “It keeps the majority of players happy and now it’s the anthem of our victories, our training ground and the dressing room — Coldplay have brought us luck”. Football and music are inseparable for Guardiola who, before a held-up Coldplay gig, was pawing the ground impatiently in the front row of the massive Palau St Jordi arena in Barcelona last September. Little known to him, Chris Martin and the lads, who were supposed to be pumping out the sounds, had sneaked out to the next door Olympic Stadium to watch England defeat Andorra 2-0 — a decision Pep would have approved of if only they had given him the nod. Because even if Guardiola is little known to the rest of Europe, outside his adoring Catalonia — where he cut his teeth as a 14-year-old ball boy during Terry Venables’ triumphant La Liga-winning first season and then stood proud at Wembley in 1992 when Barca won their first European Cup — it is vital to understand that he is almost OCD about football. Rafa Benitez? Fergie? Arsene Wenger? If you pinned Guardiola to a challenge he would bet all his Italian suits and his CD collection that he could name more Albanian second division right backs and the last three groundsmen for Crewe Alexandra. Xavi says: “Pep’s almost got a sickness for football. “He never stops or draws breath. He just works, studies, researches and then he’s on the players like a hungry hawk.”The young Pep Guardiola also modelled Antonio Miro fashion at the Barcelona spring fashion festival Passarella Gaudi. But for female footie fans who swooned just like when Jaunty Jose strode elegantly on to the English scene, the bad news is there is already someone who suffers for Guardiola’s compulsive work ethic. Indeed his partner Cristina is so long-suffering she had to allow him to accept the first negotiations to become Barca coach last May — a couple of hours after she had given birth to their third daughter, Valentina. A knock came at the hospital room door and Barca president Joan Laporta stuck his head into the gap. “Nice work on the little one but can we have our Pep back, please?” was the gist. One remarkable year on, Valentina is starting to walk, the Guardiola family gave her one heck of a first birthday party and Daddy has three trophies. As the world gets to know Guardiola, the conductor of the orchestra as he was known in his playing pomp, it must seem he’s lived a charmed life. But he has suffered too. We like to have it both ways, the paying and adoring public. If our footballers misbehave they are uncouth yobs. If they show any interest in fashion, philosophy or art then half the fans think they must be gay. Nasty, unfounded urban myths dogged Guardiola towards the end of his playing days with Barcelona, to the extent that the man who discovered Leo Messi, agent Josep Maria Minguella, recently published a book where he claims Guardiola was partly inspired to seek pastures new because “people around the club and in the media began to speculate about his private life and to claim he was gay”. When this proud Catalan is angry, the power and the heat is like lava - and that explains his regular orderings from the bench by a variety of referees this season. But he kept his counsel and the vicious rumour-mongers were left without the satisfaction of a response. Then when Italian football won his signature, despite negotiations with Sir Alex Ferguson about signing for United and a three-day trial at Manchester City, he was falsely accused of using performance-enhancing substances. Nandrolone was the substance allegedly found in his system, months after joining Brescia. From the moment he was given a four-month ban, a ￡40,000 fine and a seven-month suspended jail sentence, he fought, like a cornered Gurkha, to prove his case. Mystique Even without Joanna Lumley’s support, he won, and six years later all charges were dropped and the findings overturned. If you go against Pep Guardiola you get your facts right and you get ready for war. These days he doesn’t have so much time for Catalan cinema, South American politics — even for his wife and kids. When he had the merest of Christmas breaks this season he took Cristina and the kids for a special break to compensate — Aston Villa against Arsenal. And therein lies the next part of the Guardiola mystique. He and his assistant, Tito Vilanova, have already stated that the chances of them choosing to remain at Barca for more than another season or two are limited. Vilanova explains: “The intensity of our work and the propensity for burn-out at Barca indicate that’s the way to plan.”Guardiola is a fan of Arsenal’s play, has long-time friends at the club, is the idol of Cesc Fabregas and goes to see them on his free days at Christmas. He is also hungry like Fergie, almost joined United as a player and has just undressed them in the Champions League final. Do the maths. Pep Guardiola is hot, hot, hot — and not just for his chiseled looks and haute couture frame. Coming to a top Premier League club near you soon, Pep Guardiola, — intellectual, ex-model, leader of men, nemesis of United and the new, improved Jose Mourinho. --

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