Fascinating comment by Bayern Munich coach Pep Guardiola that he would be happy to leave Bayern Mat the end of the season if the club’s hierarchy are not happy with his work.
Guardiola has been his usual brilliant self in Munich, wining the league in record time, winning the Club World Cup, and reaching the German Cup final and Champions League semifinals where they will meet Real Madrid.
However, not everyone is happy with Pep’s tiki-taka style of play with honorary president Franz Beckenbauer recently having to row back on comments he made about finding the team “unwatchable.”
Asked about the latest criticism of his methods and style of play at a news conference on Wednesday, Guardiola told reporters that he found some of the negativity hard to take and was prepared to move on if the club wanted a change.
“I have to accept the criticism,” Guardiola said. “I tell myself ‘Pep, calm down’. You are here to work as well as possible, and my best talent is work, work, work. I am here to help the club, and if the club do not want me, a handshake and no problem for me.”
The quotes were made in English, and mostly missed by the local German reports, while Catalan paper Mundo Deportivo picked them up but did point out that Guardiola was talking “without bitterness or tension.”
Nonetheless the possibility of the former Barca hero becoming available in the summer has had quite an impact in Catalan, especially with current boss Gerardo Martino expected to be fired at the end of the season. Ex-Barca player and coach Johan Cruyff went as far as to suggest that a returning ‘Pep’ is the only person now capable of halting the slide into mediocrity.
I cannot see anyway that Bayern let Guardiola leave, but stranger things have happened in football. If it did happen, and that is a very big if, would Guardiola head back to Spain where he has already won everything, or will be maybe head for a new challenge in England?