Pep to quit Barca??

[Akira]

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.goal.com/en/news/12/spain/2011/04/01/2421758/pep-guardiola-hints-at-barcelona-exit" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.goal.com/en/news/12/spain/20 ... elona-exit</a>

Pep Guardiola hints at Barcelona exit
Guardiola reveals that he could be departing the Blaugrana in just over a year's time...

By Subhankar Mondal
Apr 1, 2011 7:30:00 PM


Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola has indicated that he could leave the club when his contract expires at the end of next season in 2012.

The former Spain international midfielder took over the coaching responsibilities at Camp Nou in the summer of 2008 and has won eight major trophies with the Blaugrana since then, including the Champions League.

However, Guardiola’s future at Barcelona has been under speculation since last summer when Sandro Rosell replaced Joan Laporta as the club’s president. Even though the 40-year-old signed a one-year contract extension in February of this year that will take him through until the end of the 2011-12 campaign, reports continue to link him to moves abroad especially to England where he is perceived by some observers as the heir to Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United.

Guardiola has now further fueled speculation by telling Rai Sport that he believes his cycle at Barcelona may be reaching its final run.

"I think my time is ending here in Barcelona,” he said. "I'm fine here, but when you're at a club like this you cannot stay for too long.

“Next year will be my fourth consecutive season as coach of Barcelona. Such a club must have a lot of courage to have a coach for so long, because the players get tired of coaches and vice-versa."

Guardiola is also open to a move to a coaching job in Italy having played for Brescia and Roma between 2001 and 2003.

"I'll come if I still want to coach,” he said. "It takes enthusiasm and more to make such a decision."

However, the Santpedor-born is not thinking of coaching Italian giants Inter and Milan just yet and explained: "I have too much respect for Barcelona to speak to other clubs while I have a contract with them. But, when the moment comes to go, I will thank the club for the successes and for making me strong. Then it depends how I feel.

"Once I am free then I can speak with clubs, but while I am here I will never permit myself to speak with others. Inter had Benitez - a great coach - and it went like this and that, now Inter have Leonardo, [Massimiliano] Allegri at Milan, I had the luck to meet him in the summer. They are big European teams with great players. [Inter president Massimo] Moratti has a great coach."

Guardiola won the treble with Barcelona in his first season in charge in 2008-09. This season too the Blaugrana have the chance to win three trophies, as they are five points clear at the top of the table in the Primera Division, through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League and also face Real Madrid in the final of the Copa del Rey later this month.

 

[Viva Rivaldo]

He's obviously been blessed with fantastic players, but his record speaks for itself. He's not the Mourinho-style coach of grinding out results so much, but with the right players, he plays fantastically beautiful football. Should definitely be given a lot of credit for Barca's recent success.

His point about players getting tired of coaches [him] is a weird one, I thought. Surely the more he became familiar to players, and longer he was successful with Barca, then the players would come to love him even more? Players can never get tired of success. Doesn't strike me as the kind of coach that would ever lose the dressing room. He's not a marmite coach, he's a raspberry jam coach...the only people that don't like him are spastics.

Would you fancy him at City in a few years' time?

 

[balkanno]

Happy 1.April to Italian Rai

 

[Kinky Dribbler]

He's obviously been blessed with fantastic players, but his record speaks for itself. He's not the Mourinho-style coach of grinding out results so much, but with the right players, he plays fantastically beautiful football. Should definitely be given a lot of credit for Barca's recent success.

His point about players getting tired of coaches [him] is a weird one, I thought. Surely the more he became familiar to players, and longer he was successful with Barca, then the players would come to love him even more? Players can never get tired of success. Doesn't strike me as the kind of coach that would ever lose the dressing room. He's not a marmite coach, he's a raspberry jam coach...the only people that don't like him are spastics.

Would you fancy him at City in a few years' time?

I agree it's an odd thing to say. The obvious example to counter it would of course be your twat of a manager. I dunno if I could ever see Guardiola managing anyone other than Barcelona though, he only seems arsed because it is his beloved club, it wouldn't be the same for him anywhere else.
With regard to him at City, I'd still be inclined to think it was a gamble before seeing how he did with another club. Difficult to judge him on one job, especially given the players he's had.
I'd take Iniesta though.
What about Pep to replace Ferguson?

 

[Viva Rivaldo]

I agree it's an odd thing to say. The obvious example to counter it would of course be your twat of a manager. I dunno if I could ever see Guardiola managing anyone other than Barcelona though, he only seems arsed because it is his beloved club, it wouldn't be the same for him anywhere else.
With regard to him at City, I'd still be inclined to think it was a gamble before seeing how he did with another club. Difficult to judge him on one job, especially given the players he's had.
I'd take Iniesta though.
What about Pep to replace Ferguson?

Nope, never. It'll need to be a special manager that comes to replace Ferguson, and I'd rather fancy someone who had a wealth of experience and a track record of building and re-building teams, rather than Pep who, although he is a fantastic coach, had inherited a fantastic side anyway. I'd love to see him stay at Barca for a decade or so though; there's just summat nice about somebody managing their boyhood club and actually succeeding with it.