Guardiola: The Hottest Free Agent Is Snapped Up…

It was a battle that top teams wanted: Chelsea were looking for a new permanent manager after firing Jose Mourinho back in December, and questions still linger over Manchester United‘s current manager Louis Van Gaal.

In the end, they lost out to Manchester City, who announced that current Bayern Munich manager Pep Guardiola will be joining the Sky Blues for the 2016/17 season – outing current manager Manuel Pellegrini, whose contract runs out at the end of this season.

As a player, Guardiola was a defensive midfielder who played 378 league games for a number of teams, but the heavy majority with Barcelona (in fact, only 56 of his senior appearances were for any other team!). He also represented his nation Spain, playing 47 times between 1992 and 2001.

It’s after his playing career had finished where things went HUGE for Pep, though. In 2008, he became the manager of Barcelona where in his first season, he guided the team to La Liga, the Copa Del Rey and the Champions League – a treble! If that wasn’t enough, he would later top it with the Supercopa de Espana, the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup – a grand total of 6 trophies won out of 6 in one calendar year! (However as this took place over two different seasons, it’s not officially classed as a sextuplet despite all wins occurring in 2009.)

If you’re a Manchester City fan and don’t have this yet, it might be time to purchase it.

He would leave Barcelona in 2012, having won a total of fourteen trophies in just four years to go and manage German side Bayern Munich. Sure enough, his reputation continued where it left off – winning four trophies in his debut season: the Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal, as well as the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup again. Last season, Bayern won the Bundesliga again and it could be a treble by the end of this season – currently sitting 8 points clear at the top and having conceded just 9 goals in the 19 games to date.

In just six full seasons (currently in the midst of his seventh), Guardiola has already amassed 19 trophies (an average of over 3 a season) and now it’s easy to see why he’s such a hot commodity. He’s conquered Spain, he’s conquered Germany… and now, it’s England’s turn.

It’s an exciting time for Manchester City – but how much of a worry must this be to the other teams? City themselves are doing fine this season already: they’re in the final of the League Cup against Liverpool, they’re in the 5th round of the FA Cup and playing Chelsea, they’re in the knockout stages of the Champions League and only three points behind Leicester City at the top of the Premier League. Simply put, City could become only the second Mens English team to ever win four trophies in a single season (Manchester United achieved this in 2008-09, but with the Community Shield and Club World Cup instead of the FA Cup and Champions League).

 
When they’re in this strong a position already, AND you’re going to throw Pep Guardiola in as their manager from next year? There could be a period of domination on its way, folks…

Ashley Redman
Fearful for Leicester City