Pep Guardiola who is respected and admired by everyone who has worked with one of the best managers of all time came under criticism by one of his former player, Franck Ribery a few days back. The Bayern Munich star was always considered to have a not so good working relationship with the Spaniard and with his comments a few days back has confirmed that fact.
Talking to Bild, during Munich's USA tour, Ribery said, " Pep didn't have a long career as a manager. He is a young coach. He lacks experience. Sometimes he talks too much. Football is very simple." Ribery also revealed that he feels trusted again under the new Bavarian boss, Carlo Ancelotti while praising Jupp Heynckes and Ottmar Hitzfeld, his former managers at Bayern under whom he had played before.
Speaking after Manchester City's victory over Borussia Dortmund, Guardiola responded to his formal player by saying, " About Ribery I must say ; I love him very much. It's good that Ribery says that I'm going. I'm here to learn." The 45-year-old handled the situation very well and deflected any unnecessary attention this issue might have got if he had reacted any differently.
This was a direct attack from the Frenchman against his former coach under whom he missed a total of 94 matches because of injuries and made just 84 appearances. Ribery had earlier criticised Guardiola for his rotation policy back in 2014 and cut a frustrating figure thought the manager's regime at the club. This jibe comes as a surprise as the game’s stalwarts like Andres Iniesta, Lionel Messi consider Pep as one of the best they have ever worked with.
Ribery was at his best under Heynckes under whom the team won a treble while returning to form under Ancelotti this summer, scoring twice against AC Milan in the preseason game in the International Champions Cup. Guardiola's men finished their China leg and returned to Manchester where they will train for another week before flying to Sweden to play their final practice game this summer against Arsenal. Whereas Bayern face Inter Milan and Real Madrid in their USA leg of preseason.
