“It was about Sergio Busquets breaking in too, it was Gerard Pique and Puyol together, it was Villa as a left winger. He maximised everyone’s potential in a style that left Barca fans speechless. They don’t just expect to win games, they expect to play.”

Like any career at the very top level, Guardiola’s has often been defined by his rivals. At City, he’s often claimed it’s the challenge of the likes of Jurgen Klopp that has pushed him to ever greater heights.

In Spain, that was Real Madrid.

Cristiano Ronaldo was the sole pretender to Lionel Messi’s crown as the best player in the world, while Jose Mourinho was drafted in before Pep’s third season after leading Inter to a Treble.

“The impact of Pep in the first season meant that what Madrid did afterwards was sign players and managers to be the kryptonite of Barcelona,” remembers Ballus.

“Mourinho’s Inter won the Champions League in Pep’s second season so Real Madrid signed him as the way to stop Pep and Barcelona. 

“Pep outplayed them in the first season and that was the motivation every year. It was a definitive period in the long rivalry between both clubs.

“That’s why Real Madrid played the way they did, because they believed it was set up to disrupt Barcelona rather than in terms of copying Barcelona’s style. 

“This style of play had a real impact on the national team in terms of how Spain played and the titles they won in 2010 and 2012, playing that philosophy and system with a lot of the players who had worked with Guardiola.”

While City fans are well used to a passionate and animated Guardiola on the touchlines, he’s a different beast to the one that prowled the touchline at the Camp Nou.

Four years into his time at Barcelona, where Guardiola was cultural icon and public figure as much as a football coach, he was exhausted.

Ballus believes that informed his behaviour in subsequent jobs.

“He was a different person to the one we see at City. We still see his passion, but he was way more passionate with everything at Barcelona. 

“In that way, he realised after four years that it wasn’t possible to live this way. Pep embraced the challenge with everything he had basically, but he needed to take time off because of how much it had drained him.”

Guardiola’s time in charge is both a blessing and a curse for the Barcelona fans that were lucky enough to witness it unfold.

The general consensus in Catalonia is that football has never been played the way it was between 2008 and 2012 and it might never be that good again.

“It’s always going to be a benchmark in Barcelona and around Europe,” said Ballus.

“The Pep years seemed so perfect in so many ways because he played football the way Barcelona have always wanted to play, he was a character that embodied Catalonia and every press conference was an appointment that you couldn’t miss. 

“He captured the attention of the city with the way he spoke and explained the game in a way that hadn’t been seen before.

“Fans consider themselves lucky to have seen Barcelona play in that way.”

“Guardiola helped the individuals too – Schweinsteiger, Lahm, Muller, Neuer, Boateng were the backbone of that successful team and heavily influenced by Guardiola no doubt.”

As Guardiola’s time in Germany rumbled on, he only further edged Bayern to his will.

The passing football and complete control that had become his hallmark at Barcelona was present week in, week out at the Allianz Arena.

“His vision was one of total dominance,” stated Honigstein.

“That meant almost having a team of 11 midfielders to keep the ball, suffocate the opposition and control games in that way. At times, it was like that.  

“There were teams that were just completely helpless. But, especially at the beginning and in times of crisis or doubt, he was not afraid to mix it up.  

“The first game away to Dortmund, he played long balls to evade their press and he played Javi Martinez as a false 10 to run after the second balls. In the cup final in his first season, he played with three at the back and they became counterattacking. 

“By and large, they played very extreme Guardiola type football and the combination of the quality of the players he had, with that kind of coaching, made Bayern completely untouchable.” 

Seven trophies, including three Bundesliga titles, came in his three seasons in Bavaria.

The only missing piece was a Champions League title and while that is sometimes used to discredit his time at Bayern, Honigstein is having none of it.

“He was 100% a success,” he said without hesitation.

“Winning the Treble before he came made the bar almost impossibly high for Guardiola but in terms of the wider impact, the way he developed players all pointed to a huge success.

“He gave German legends like Lahm, Schweinsteiger, Kroos more dimensions to their game. 

“Bayern dominated to an extent that hadn’t been seen consistently over that long a period before when he did it. He took this team to a new level.

“Most people would say yes but they didn’t win the Champions League. That is true and a blemish of sorts, but in terms of the football, the dominance, that was unique at the time. A lot of people would have preferred him to stay longer.

“In the end, it became almost too easy for him and he realised that it doesn’t matter what I do all season, it comes down to one or two games in the semi-finals of the Champions League.

“For a coach so meticulous in his preparation, that was probably not quite enough and he felt he needed a different kind of challenge.

“Since then, Klopp and Liverpool pushed Pep to another level in England, so you could say that their time together in Germany was a precursor to everything that came in the Premier League.”

After three seasons, Pep would move to City to continue his magnificent career and start the love story with the Etihad faithful that has followed.

We’ve seen a lot of teams in England take inspiration from his football in the years that have followed, but was that the case in Germany? 

Honigstein says he’d liked to have seen more clubs attempt it.

“It's an interesting debate in Germany, because a lot of people say that Guardiola changed German football and he’s made everyone want to play that passing football now. I don’t see it that way,” he said.

“I don’t see any club taking up that blueprint and trying to play that football because I think it’s just seen as too difficult unless you have players you can trust under that pressure. 

“This is the most difficult way of playing football and I don’t see any team that has tried to do what Bayern did under Guardiola. 

“A lot of his detractors feel he negatively affected German football but I see in the opposite way, I wish he would have had more people trying to do what he did.”

Over the course of a long and distinguished career stretching back over four decades, Henry Winter has cemented his status as one of the most perceptive and respected football journalists. 

A former chief football writer for both the Daily Telegraph and the Times, Henry is now a columnist for Sports Illustrated and few are better qualified to both reflect on and chart the impact and significance of Pep’s remarkable City tenure.

There’s no doubt that 18 trophies and a lifetime of indelible, magical memories amply illustrate the scale and magnitude of Guardiola’s glorious Etihad era.

“On a broader perspective, I've always had this theory that some of the best managers have been midfielders who never relied on pace as players.

“Pep is the perfect example of that. He was a fantastic midfielder for Barcelona, but he didn’t rely on natural athleticism or acceleration to get him out of trouble.

“Instead, he relied on anticipation and his intelligence to do that.”

Another of the many transformative aspects of Guardiola’s Etihad tenure has been his impact and influence not just on City and the Premier League – but on English football as a whole.

From goalkeepers who are comfortable with their feet, through to false number nines and inverted full backs doubling up into midfield, the ripple effects of the tactical and technical innovations overseen by Guardiola have already begun to transform the way the game is played and thought about.

From his perspective, Winter is in no doubt as to the profound influence of Guardiola’s tactical genius and his ripple effects wider afield.

“I don't think this is too grand to say but Pep has triggered an age of enlightenment in English football,” Winter declared.

“When football historians look back, they will describe this as Pep’s age of enlightenment and how grateful we should be for what he did to the game.

“He's been one step ahead of everyone else. I mean he's a chess Grandmaster who is literally two moves ahead.

“I live in the middle of nowhere, yet if I go past my local playing field on a Sunday, there will be a coach with inverted fullbacks.

“It's what kids do nowadays. I can't remember the last time I saw a fullback either stay in his position or just shuttle back and forth - they step into midfield.

“So, I think Pep’s legacy has already started in terms of its impact on English football.

“And just look at his impact on other coaches like Mikel Arteta and Enzo Maresca… it’s everywhere.”

“Aside from the numbers and trophies on the page, you think of the human beings and the work Pep does which underpins all that.

“He makes good players even more versatile, flexible and able to play and thrive in different positions.

“Look at Phil Foden. He's played wide, he's played as a 10, he's playing as an 8 and you look at him now and he's absolutely flourishing.

“So, when I think of Pep’s many great achievements I would put his handling of Phil Foden in terms of the early Phil Foden, in terms of educating Phil, in terms of handling Phil over the past year when he had a slight dip, as absolutely exemplary.

“Phil has this mentor and this father figure in Pep who really cares for not just Phil Foden the player but as a human being too.

“And I think that is arguably Pep’s greatest triumph.

“Obviously, the trophies are obvious. Obviously, the wins too, but the way that he is an absolute winner in terms of his supreme man-management of players is extraordinary.”