Pep Guardiola, currently one of the greatest managers in the world, learned his trade at Barcelona – where he also spent his playing career. In 2008 he was appointed as the Barcelona manager ahead of Jose Mourinho, and he revolutionized the style of play at the club.
His tiki-taka football left most teams that faced them with no answer, and Barcelona dominated Europe and Spain for a good four years before he finally decided to leave the Camp Nou and the country, to try his hand at other leagues.
Guardiola was in charge of Bayern Munich for three years where he comfortably won the Bundesliga all three seasons. But he could not achieve the club’s primary goal of conquering Europe, and many criticized his time at the club, branding it a failure.
Now he’s at Manchester City and his team are currently top of the league. Guardiola has a three-year contract with the club after which it isn’t known whether he would stay on or have the desire to manage another club in Europe.
But one thing has been made certain by his father Valentino Guardiola, is that the Spaniard will not return to Barcelona. The fans definitely wouldn’t mind having him back at Catalonia but his father feels he has nothing left in Spain.
Speaking to Cadena Ser, he said,
“Would Pep return to Barcelona? To do what, work as a ball boy? I don't see him going back there. His time at the club has come and gone and I think we can certainly rule out him going back as coach at the very least.”
“I would think that perhaps he could take over the Catalan national team, But I can't see him taking over Spain. I don't have anything against anyone and everyone is free to think what they want but that's my opinion."In the end, I don't know what he will do - and who am I to say what he should do anyway?”
Will Guardiola stay for longer than three years at City?
From his response to the question, it seems as though he was annoyed by the question itself. But it would be up to Guardiola, as his father rightly pointed out. There is the possibility that Pep plans to build a long-time project with Manchester City.
The type of signings he’s made are all players who are in a younger age group as of now. So that might be a sign of him wanting to stay longer than the three-year contract he has signed.
Winning the league is his objective this season, but that will be no easy task given there at least five other teams competing for the Premier League title.
