Pep Guardiola knew what he wanted to say to Manchester City’s supporters. Saying it out loud proved harder.
Behind-the-scenes footage released this week to preview the Prime Video docuseries A Beautiful Obsession shows the Catalan trying to rehearse the goodbye speech he would go on to give on the Etihad pitch. Tears come. He tries again, and stops.
The scene is striking because it is not the Guardiola supporters recognise. In public he performed his emotions in gestures and press conferences, always in command of the room. In the rehearsal clip there is no room and nothing to perform for.
The four-part series, directed by Academy Award winner Kevin Macdonald, launches on Prime Video in the UK and Ireland on Wednesday. It follows Guardiola through his final two seasons at Manchester City, from the collapse of a 26-game unbeaten run in late 2024, through the domestic double of 2025/26, and out to his goodbye. He won 20 trophies across a 10-year spell at the club before stepping down at the end of the season.
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The speech he then gave at the Etihad
On the day itself, in front of a full Etihad after a 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa, Guardiola addressed the crowd from the pitch.
“I’m so nervous. Terrified right now,” he told supporters.
He then thanked them for a decade.
“It has been an incredible, tremendous honour to be your manager for 10 years,” he said in the address.
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He spoke about his 95-year-old father, who was in the stands, and about the stand at the Etihad that will carry his family name.
Not the only tears the film captures
The docuseries returns repeatedly to moments Guardiola shielded from view. During City’s worst run of his tenure, in the autumn of 2024, the Catalan addressed his squad in a broken voice to explain why he had extended his contract.
“If I am a problem you have to tell me,” he told them, according to the film.
“I won’t stay here for the money or just for the fact of staying. I extended my contract because I want to be with you. I want to fight. I don’t want you to feel like I’m leaving or running away.”
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That was more than a year before he left.
A Beautiful Obsession premieres on Prime Video on Wednesday.
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