Pep Guardiola's coaching tree: Vincent Kompany, Mikel Arteta, Xavi, and the Man City boss' pupils following in their master's footsteps

Mikel Arteta never played under or alongside Guardiola, but the former Barcelona boss sensed he had an eye for coaching and hired him as one of his three assistants when he took over at City in 2016. Guardiola valued Arteta's inside knowledge of the Premier League and said his wisdom made him a better coach.

Many believed Guardiola was moulding Arteta as his successor at City, but his assistant could not resist the offer to take over at Arsenal, where he had ended his playing career. And what a move it has proved to be, with Arteta turning the Gunners from a basket case into genuine Premier League title contenders.

Guardiola ultimately won his first true battle with his former pupil as City overhauled Arsenal in 2022-23, but Arteta is determined to come back stronger this season. He has been heavily backed in the transfer market, spending over £200 million to help his side take the next step and swipe the Premier League crown out of Guardiola's hands.

Kompany spent a memorable 11 years with City, helping their rise from the 'Noisy Neighbours' of Manchester United into the top team not just in the city, but the country. He hoisted four Premier League titles as City captain as well as winning two FA Cups and four League Cups. He even has a statue outside the ground.

But Kompany has been unsentimental about City since becoming Burnley coach and his first season in charge of the Clarets could hardly have gone better. His side took the Championship by storm and they swept to the title, clinching promotion in early April with seven games to spare, a record since the division was rebranded in 2004.

Kompany has also overseen a radically different style of play than the one Burnley became renowned for under Sean Dyche, and Guardiola has declared that his former charge will one day succeed him as City manager. "He will be back sooner or later. His destiny to be Man City boss is written in the stars," Guardiola said last season before facing Burnley in the FA Cup. The Cityzens crushed the Clarets 6-0, but Friday's clash at Turf Moor should be a closer run affair.

Xavi was Guardiola's eyes and ears on the pitch during his four glorious years in charge of Barcelona and had long been tipped to follow his footsteps towards the Camp Nou dugout.

After seeing out his playing career in Qatar, where Guardiola also spent time, Xavi transitioned to coach with Doha side Al-Sadd before finally taking charge at Barca in 2021 when Ronald Koeman was sacked.

Xavi's time back with his boyhood club has not been perfect and has witnessed four disappointing European exits, but in his first full season he led the Catalans to their first La Liga title in four years, finishing 10 points ahead of Real Madrid. Barca also beat Madrid 3-1 to win the Spanish Super Cup in January.

The current Barca side's style is rather different from the positional play Guardiola perfected in Catalunya, when Xavi was pulling the strings, and last season they grew accustomed to winning many matches 1-0. Indeed, they often played ultra-defensive football, the type which the midfielder used to sneer at, drawing unwanted comparisons with Jose Mourinho.

When Guardiola and Erik ten Hag would coach their respective Bayern Munich teams on the same training ground and have lengthy tactical chats, who could have imagined that a decade on they would be sworn enemies as the figureheads of the two Manchester clubs?

Ten Hag was already a promising young coach in 2013 after guiding Go Ahead Eagles to promotion to the Eredivisie, but he swapped a season in the Dutch top-flight to work in Germany's regional league with Bayern's reserve team. Ten Hag spent two years as Guardiola's contemporary, and his current assistant manager Steve McLaren revealed the Dutchman assumed the Catalan's philosophy, revealing that Bayern's staff referred to him as 'Mini Pep'.

When Ten Hag's Ajax were taking the Champions League by storm in 2019, Guardiola said of his old contemporary: "He is a top-class manager and his teams are a joy to watch." In 2022, he encouraged United to hire him and he may have regretted that advice, as the Dutchman has transformed the Red Devils' fortunes and rekindled the rivalry between the two clubs.

Guardiola may have beaten his old contemporary in last season's FA Cup final and won the treble, but he can expect a bigger title challenge from United in the coming campaign after they made some eye-catching signings.

After a long career as a journeyman midfielder which bizarrely began with West Brom, Enzo Maresca moved into coaching, working as Jorge Sampaoli's assistant at Sevilla. He later became head coach of City's reserve team, and after an unsuccessful stint at Parma back in Italy, he returned to Manchester last year as Guardiola's assistant. And he seems to have had a real impact, helping City become the only the second team in English football history to win the treble.

Perhaps on the back of City's success, Maresca was named head coach at Leicester City in June. He has got off to a fine start in his quest to lead the Foxes back to the top-flight, winning the opening game of the season against Coventry City and beating Burton Albion in the first round of the Carabao Cup.

As well as being highly regarded by Guardiola, Maresca has a long-running friendship with Brighton coach Roberto De Zerbi.

Guardiola was always impressed with Javier Mascherano's ability to read the game, which explains why he signed him for Barcelona not to play in central midfield, but as a centre-back, a position the Argentine had hardly played in previously.

Like Xavi, Mascherano made no secret of his desire to move into coaching when he eventually finished playing. The man known as El Jefecito (The Little Boss) called time on his career in 2020 while with Estudiantes back in his home country, and a year later was named as coach of Argentina's Under-20 side.

Mascherano led his side into the U20 World Cup on home soil earlier this year, but the highly-fancied Albiceleste were knocked out in the last 16 by Nigeria.

Guardiola and Xabi Alonso were once sworn enemies, when the then-Real Madrid midfielder was a loyal disciple of Jose Mourinho's during the height of the rivalry with Barcelona. It was, therefore, surprising to see Guardiola sign Alonso for Bayern Munich in 2014, but the Basque proved a loyal servant for the Bavarians.

His two-year spell playing under Guardiola completed a highly-privileged education for Alonso, who had worked with Rafa Benitez, Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti. With teachers like that, it was no surprise that Alonso went into coaching himself, cutting his teeth with the reserve team of boyhood club Real Sociedad, in a manner reminiscent of Guardiola beginning his path into coaching with Barca B.

Alonso returned to Germany last October to take charge of Bayer Leverkusen and did a stellar job in his first seven months in charge. The former midfielder led Leverkusen to finish sixth in the Bundesliga after a disastrous start to the season under predecessor Gerardo Soane, while also guiding them to the semi-finals of the Europa League. He was rewarded with a new contract, but he remains one of the early favourites to replace Ancelotti at Madrid when the Italian leaves to coach Brazil in the summer of 2024.

Thierry Henry was not Guardiola's most significant player at Barcelona, but he still played an important role in two La Liga triumphs and the 2009 Champions League win. He always spoke highly of the Catalan's methods, but has struggled to have had much success of his own as a coach.

After working as an assistant to Roberto Martinez with the Belgium team at the 2018 World Cup, Henry got his first job as a head coach with Monaco, where his own playing career had begun two decades before. But it was far from a romantic story and Monaco, who had won the Ligue 1 title a little more than a year before, plummeted towards the bottom of the table. With relegation beckoning, Henry was sacked after less than 100 days in charge.

The Arsenal legend took some time out of coaching before his next job with Montreal Impact in Major League Soccer, but also struggled Stateside. He returned to work alongside Martinez with Belgium at Euro 2020 and the 2022 World Cup, but is now without a coaching job after his former boss was hired as Portugal coach.

He is thriving as a pundit, though, and has a popular Champions League show on CBS Sports with Jamie Carragher and Micah Richards. And after winning the final in Istanbul, Guardiola spoke to Henry and Co. and admitted he was a fan of their show.