Mikel Arteta, Xavi, Vincent Kompany and the Pep Guardiola pupils following in the footsteps of their master

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 leading Arsenal to the top of the Premier League in an enthralling and intriguing title race against his former club and mentor.

Guardiola, however has refused to take any credit for Arteta's work at Arsenal, dismissing suggestions he helped him as "bullsh*t".

The Belgian 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.

He has not been to visit the statue, however, and his only focus has been returning Burnley to the Premier League after taking charge at Turf Moor last year.

He is doing a very good job of that: the Clarets are runaway leaders in the Championship and with a 19-point cushion in the automatic promotion places.

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.

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, most recently defeat by Manchester United.

The style of football his side play also differs from the positional play Guardiola perfected in Catalonia, when Xavi was pulling the strings.

Surprisingly, Xavi's Barca have become accustomed to winning many matches 1-0, often playing ultra-defensive football, the type which the midfielder used to sneer at.

But he does have Barca sitting pretty at the top of the table and on course to win their first La Liga title in four years, while they are also on track to reach the Copa del Rey final.

When Guardiola and 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 instead 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 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."

Last year, he encouraged United to hire him. He may have regretted that advice when United beat City 2-1 in January...

Guardiola was always impressed with 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.

Later this year he will lead his side to the under-20 World Cup in Indonesia.

Guardiola and 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 has done a stellar job, taking the team up to ninth in the Bundesliga after a disastrous start to the season under predecessor Gerardo Soane.

He has also guided Leverkusen into the quarter-finals of the Europa League.

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, with Monaco re-appointing his predecessor Leonardo Jardim.

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.