‘Sir Alex Ferguson and Pep Guardiola are the best around today’ – Terry Venables gives his verdict on the Champions League final’s two opposing…

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By Jonathan Birchall

Having managed Barcelona to the title in 1985 and come up against Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United during spells at both Tottenham and Leeds, few know both of Saturday’s Champions League finalists as well as Terry Venables.

The former England boss also took the Catalan side to the 1986 European Cup final and knows that the eyes of the world will be on both Pep Guardiola and Ferguson as both coaches chase a domestic and continental double at Wembley.

Now, Venables has spoken to Goal.com to give his verdict on the managers going head to head on Saturday.

Pep Guardiola

Guardiola has dealt with the league and the Champions League and he’s also done a job for Spain because there were nine Barcelona players in their team at the World Cup.

Ever since Pep Guardiola took over at the highest level of Spanish football with Barcelona, he’s mostly been successful and he gave the nucleus for Spain to win the World Cup too. He’s a teacher, he improves young players and he gets results as well.

He is not in the transfer market a lot. It’s easier to make a comparison with Manchester United and Real Madrid than Barcelona because they don’t use transfers too much.

Barcelona have a through the ranks situation and stick to that completely and then if they do need a player like Villa, as they did earlier in the season, they will invest because they can.

They’re not actually blasting the bank for £200 million a year.

Barcelona don’t make many changes to their team. There’s a little bit of tinkering if they need to but that’s it. Anybody can prepare a team, but you’ve got to work hard in a game. Both managers are very good at that.

Who’s the boss? | Both managers will be looking to overcome the other at Wembley

Sir Alex Ferguson

When you look at Sir Alex, he knows that with the pressure that both men are under and he knows you can’t take anything for granted and think you’re just going to win games because you’ve got the best team.

The statistics speak for themselves; 19 titles and everything else Sir Alex Ferguson has won.

Manchester United have done a lot in the transfer market but they’ve also had the back up of going through their ranks, which is exactly what Guardiola does.

United do it differently to everyone because there is also a middle section of players with players like Fabio and Rafael who come in around 18 and therefore have more of a chance of making it than the boys that are 15. There is a block of players there that have swelled the pot and made the squad bigger.

They invest when they have to but they don’t overdo it. Some people say it’s not the best United team ever which I’m not sure about but it’s certainly their best squad ever because of the way that they do their recruitment.

If Sir Alex doesn’t like something he will deal with it straight away, you’ve got to be able to do that. He’s excellent at that. Sir Alex still runs it as a manager and has his coaches underneath him to help.

I think it’s there to be seen that these two are the best around at the moment. To get the results that they do for their clubs, there are no better.

Terry Venables is a 188BET ambassador. The In-Play betting specialists are offering great value odds on a host of markets for the Champions League Final. To check them out and for a free £25 bet go to www.188promo.com/terry