When Bayern Munich announced that Pep Guardiola would succeed Jupp Heynckes at the Allianz Arena in July, many a football purist praised the move of the Spaniard to Germany. Die Bayern are a team that fit’s the Spaniards morals in being a well run, family orientated, fan reliant outfit, much like Barcelona.
One team that will ultimately suffer from his decision to take the job at the Bundesliga side is Chelsea. Blues owner Roman Abramovich has been a keen admirer of the way Barcelona play for some time now and he was hopeful of convincing Guardiola that his future lay at Stamford Bridge.
Yet, after missing out on Pep, the Russian Oligarch may be set to swallow his pride and look to convince Jose Mourinho that his immediate future lays in west London. The charismatic 50-year-old departed Chelsea in somewhat ominous circumstances back in 2008, despite guiding the club to back-to-back Premier League trophies.
Now at Real Madrid, Mourinho has continuously gone out of his way to alienate himself from the players, with reports suggesting the likes of Iker Casillas and Sergio Ramos have met with president Florentino Perez to issue an ultimatum to the big spending supremo – either Mourinho leaves, or we do.
With Los Blancos unlikely to catch up on Barcelona in the hunt for La Liga glory, attention will undoubtedly switch to securing the Copa Del Rey and the Champions League, with Real keen to land ‘La Decima’ – their 10th European trophy.
Failure to do so could well lead to Jose being sacked by the Madrid giants, especially with the Portuguese tactician too proud to walk away from any job regardless off any perilous position he finds himself in.
Some suggest he is to be the long term successor to Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, while a possible switch to Manchester City is a possibility, especially if Roberto Mancini fails to land silverware this year.
With Chelsea, however, it’s all but set up for a possible return. He’s still a favourite with the fans and players and many believe he has unfinished business at Stamford Bridge, most notably leading the club to Champions League glory, something they achieved under Roberto Di Matteo last season.
With the supporters evidently unhappy with current manager Rafa Benitez, it’s led to suggestions that the former Liverpool boss could return to Spain as Real head coach. It all but makes sense to football purists, with the Special One recently admitting he’d be happy to return to England again in the foreseeable future.
Guardiola’s decision to take over at Bayern could well be the beginning of one of the biggest publicised managerial merry-go-rounds in recent years, with many of the opinion that the cogs begun sputter into action the day the Spaniard opted to move to Germany.