What’s the story?
The hope of Barcelona fans seeing Pep Guardiola manage the Catalan club again have been eliminated once and for all after the Manchester City coach dismissed talk of him returning to Camp Nou in the future.
"I will never go back to Barcelona to be coach there. My period there is gone,” said Guardiola in a press conference.
Barcelona manager, Luis Enrique who is under a lot of pressure will be out of contract as manager of Barcelona at the end of this season. With a four-goal deficit in the first leg of their Champions League encounter against Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona are at the risk of being knocked out of the Champions League next month.
In case you didn’t know...
After being appointed as the manager of FC Barcelona in 2008, Guardiola went on to achieve a treble, winning the Champions League, La Liga, and the Copa del Rey in his first season in charge.
Before his role as the manager of the club, the Catalan played professional football for Barcelona between 1990 and 2001. Guardiola played as a defensive midfielder in the team under the management of Johan Cruyff and lifted 16 trophies including six La Liga titles and a European Cup.
After achieving 14 titles as the manager of Barcelona, Guardiola took a brief sabbatical before joining FC Bayern Munich in 2013. After three successful seasons with the German giants, he took over from Manuel Pellegrini as the coach of Manchester City in the summer.
Real Madrid are currently at the top of the La Liga table with 49 points and two games in hand, while Barcelona are in second place with 48 points.
The heart of the matter
Having achieved everything as manager at Barcelona, Guardiola has chosen not go back to his former club as he looks for a new challenge as manager of Manchester City. Blaugrana fans were hoping for a reunion with Guardiola with the club beginning to derail from its title tracks.
The Spanish manager also spoke of Barcelona’s 4-0 defeat at the hands of PSG in the Champions League last week, and that if there’s any team in team in the world that can turn things around, it is Barcelona.
Also Read: Reports: Lionel Messi's father wants Jorge Sampaoli to replace Luis Enrique at Barcelona
"There's a lot of competition, the opposition are so strong," said Guardiola. "You can win heavily or you can lose heavily, that can happen, it's happened to me, but there are 90 minutes to go and anything can happen. If there's a team who can do it, then it's Barca, with their mentality.”
What's next?
With Pep Guardiola dismissing a reunion with his former club, Barcelona will be on the lookout for a replacement for Luis Enrique whose contract with the club will expire at the end of the season. There have been rumours that Sevilla manager, Jorge Sampaoli has been shortlisted for the managerial post.
Sportskeeda’s Take
Pep Guardiola is a man who likes challenges and there is no bigger challenge for him than achieving titles with Manchester City in England. His decision to not manage Barcelona makes sense as the Spaniard has achieved everything that there is to achieve at his former club.
