What Pep Did Next: Guardiola Confirmed As New Bayern Munich Coach

Chris Wright

16th, January 2013

27 Comments

By Chris Wright

“Boom bitches!”

S-W-E-R-V-E. Well, not many (including us) saw that one coming. Bayern Munich have just confirmed that Pep Guardiola will take over from incumbent head coach Jupp Heynckes at the end of the 2012/13, i.e, after Pep finishes his self-imposed year long sabbatical of lie-ins and corporate speaking.

After a couple of hours of speculation and counter-speculation, both Bild and Kicker announced the news as official before the following Tweet emerged on the official Bayern account just minutes ago…

Wow.

Initial reaction? It’s strange; Bayern Munich are one of the biggest, richest and most prestigious clubs in the world and yet somehow it still feels like Pep has taken a second tier job considering he could have cherry-picked his next employers – though maybe that’s just my repressed Anglocentric world view ticking over in the back of my mind.

We’ve been led to believe that Guardiola would be turning up at Stamford Bridge (Roman needs to start work asap on his ‘Plan B’ – or ‘Operation: Avram Grant’ as it’s otherwise known) or Old Trafford for so long. I guess it’s just a case of everything seeming like a relative climb-down after his time at Barca.

Let’s see how he gets on at a side that isn’t intrinsically pre-geared toward his philosophies.

Oh how very exciting!

Posted in Bundesliga, Managers

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27 Comments

  1. One Man Went to Mow says:

    Saw this coming a mile off

  2. Nuno says:

    Smart move. Chelsea would be too much of a gamble, I don’t think he’d be able to change players’ egos and he’d be permanently compared to Mourinho. Did not see him going to Old Trafford, Sir Alex’s successor will definitely be Mourinho. Bayern has financial capability and their League is not as competitive as the Premier League, so he can focus on Champions League.

  3. milt_palacio says:

    I don’t think it’s a second tier job. I think it’s on same level as coaching Man Utd, Barcelona or Real Madrid. It’s definetly more prestigious than coaching new-rich teams like PSG, City or Chelsea or has-beens like Arsenal or pretty much every Italian team.

  4. Manolo Garnix says:

    He has “FCB” tattoed across his chest so he could only choose between Bayern and Basel.
    Now I can finally see how his team does on a rainy friday evening in Freiburg or Mainz.

  5. dan says:

    To be fair, Bayern have been the favourites with the bookies for months now…

  6. MaxMad says:

    @Nuno,

    However much I agree on your two first statements (Chelsea and Man Utd), I would like to point out the fact that the Bundesliga is equally competitive. The goals to game ratio is usually higher, teams seem to be consistently close in the tables (Premier League difference between 3rd and last place: 27 points / 1. Bundesliga difference between 3rd and last: 21). Every league is different, but saying the German league is less competitive just doesn’t hold up.

    Never really been watching German football, but I can see it may start happening once Pep takes charge of Bayern and the primadonna that is Robben.

  7. Philipp says:

    “…yet somehow it still feels like Pep has taken a second tier job considering he could have cherry-picked his next employers”
    are you being serious?
    to be honest with you, Bundesliga is just passing the EPL, on every level. Healthy clubs, no debts, no jerks that throw around with their dirty or oily money… c’mon guys – he knows what he’s doing, he knows that the future of European top-class-football is IN Germany…
    and so should you!

    Poor Premier League, poor Primera Division… and Serie A is a bunch of shit anyway…

    I hope Roman and the Sheiks are crying their heart out. Idiots!

  8. Titus says:

    I wonder if he will be able to poach some Barca players since they all really like him… When is Iniesta’s contract up? Or dare I say Herr Messi!!!

  9. Dusty says:

    Lol @ the suggestion Bayern are second tier compared to Chelski!!

  10. Nuno says:

    @MaxMad
    The competitiveness I was talking about is the difference between 1st and 3rd / 4th, not among the others.
    Example: La Liga’s difference between 3rd and last is 22 points. Does it make it as competitive as Bundesliga and more so than EPL? I personally don’t think so.
    To state my point, here’s the last standings on Bundesliga:
    2012/2013 so far: 1st Bayern 42pts (+8 over 2nd)
    2011/2012: 1st Dortmund 81 pts (+8 over 2nd; +17 over 3rd)
    Previous years were I a bit ‘closer’ than I thought, I’ll give you that, but still Bayern has always been pretty much the dominant force (still remember when they bought half Leverkusen’s team after they reached the Champions League final)

  11. One Man Went to Mow says:

    @Dusty

    Lol @ how quickly you’ve forgotten Munich in May XD

  12. Johannes says:

    Seen it coming for a few weeks now.
    Bayern are the closest club to Barcelona in terms of play style (well, van Gaal did to bayern essentially the same thing he did for Barca ten Years before)
    Great respect between the two clubs, too (remember the story about messi sending ex-record holder Gerd Müller a signed shirt ?)
    The Bundesliga is also propably more suited to the style Pep wants to play with higher focus on tactics than in the EPL.
    It makes sense in a lot of ways, maybe the only “downside” would be for him that he most definitely won’t earn as much money as he could have in the EPL. Still, this would be in the range of 8m € instead of 12, so he should be doing just fine ;)

  13. One Man Went to Mow says:

    @Chris

    They have been the bookies favourite for weeks if not months.

  14. Miguel - NYC says:

    Though i am sure pep will get paid very generously, it won’t be close to what he could have gotten at City or Chelsea. It shows there is more to this beautiful game than money.
    At Barcelona, he said “winning is not the only important thing, the way you do it is just as important”. Some EPL club will get Mou in the summer and he will take his comedic act with him (Have you seen what’s going on at Madrid…especially off the pitch??). He will probably win some, but will not get a tenth of the praise Pep or Del Bosque have received and will get.
    And yes, Bayern is not Chelsea…Bayern has been a big club for decades. Chelsea is still trying to become a big club.

  15. Raul says:

    @Philipp ” the future of European top-class-football is IN Germany” i agree with you.
    So far this season all German teams are still in the Champions League and Europa League. In the Champions League the 3 German teams ended top of their groups, even Dortmund with City and Madrid in their Group.
    So it’s looking good for the germans ;)

    @One Man Went to Mow: In May the Difference was made by Drogba and Robben. Chelsea wasn’t really better than Bayern.

  16. Bof says:

    “though maybe that’s just my repressed Anglocentric world view ticking over in the back of my mind.”

    Haha, nevermind. TV pundits fall for that funny view of the game week-in week-out.

  17. Mr Sensible says:

    Miguel – NYC

    I’m sure Bayern can match City and Chelsea for wages if they really want to, they are the 5th most valuable club in the world, ahead of Chelsea and City.

    I’m sure one of the main reasons for joining Bayern is like Barca their relationship with the fans and a brilliant youth set up.

  18. Eckpfosten says:

    50+1 finally pays off.

  19. Adam says:

    As a Bayern fan for years I see this as a good thing in that maybe, just maybe, American TV stations will actually show more Bayern matches than just those from the Champions League against Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Manchester.

  20. Alex says:

    Extremely anglocentric of you. Bayern have been in the CL final 2 of the last 3 years. I fail to see how that’s a second tier job. It’s a smack in the face to one of the biggest clubs in the world. They have a better squad right now than any team in the Premier League and they have the perfect players to tiki-taka if they want. I don’t know if you’re completely aware of the squad or not, but a midfield 3 of Toni Kroos, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Javi Martinez would be second only to Barcelona. Plus there are ball playing center backs, two attacking fullbacks, although one tends to stay deeper for Pep, great wingers with Ribery, Mueller, and Robben. The only position that wouldn’t necessarily fit is the striker, but Gomez has shown that he can adapt. There’s also lots of youthful players like Shaqiri, Alaba, Emre Can, Jan Kirchoff (in the summer), and a great youth academy. It’ll be a great fit.

  21. hasselhof says:

    2nd tier? On what planet is the finals of the champions league in the last 2 of 3 years, 2nd tier. Brit’s never cease to amaze me.

  22. ClogHopper says:

    Want to beat Bayern? You just need to sign the one man who can pick a german centre back lock in his sleep. One word, Hes’key’

  23. MGJ says:

    I was convinced he was going to take the Scotland job.

  24. mtm says:

    Plus, Bayern is a serious club. I think it’s the best choice for him. The club’s elders, be it in their scheme or not, are always very sincere about the team and players yet they are revered and acknowledged for what they bring to the table. Also Bayern shares somke of the values Guardiola does.

  25. MrMac says:

    Some of us didn’t see it coming.

    Doesn’t anyone agree however – no matter which team he picked in EPL – being in the EPL as a manager would be harder for get the results required than Bayern?

    This is an easier job than competing against chelsea\city\man u etc .

    Short of taking the spurs job – it’s easier with the current team\setup\resources\league to take the bayern job.

    No doubt germany’s league will grow massively over the next years – but right now – this choice managerially seems easier.

  26. Tico says:

    He’s overrated, just like Rijkaard….he’ll have a hard time handling the big egos of Ribery and Robben….it’s not like Barca where its like a school…also no Messi…..

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