Guardiola’s first shot at club management was at Barcelona. Over four years of managing at the Nou Camp, Guardiola has won 14 trophies. In the process, he became the most successful coach in Barcelona’s history. The high pressure time was followed by one year of sabbatical. During this year, every big club across the globe tried to woo him. After lot of deliberations and heartbreaks for many clubs, Pep chose to further his career at Bayern Munich.
It wasn’t that Bayern were looking for success or were starved for any. On the contrary, they just finished a historic treble in 2012-13 when Guardiola took over. The expectations on Pep were very high and it was expected that he would bring continuous success to the club. He has already won 5 trophies in less than 2 years at the Allianz Arena. But, the yard stick for Guardiola was to achieve continental success and win UEFA Champions League.
Bayern lost to Real Madrid at the semi-final stage last year. More than the loss, the manner in which they folded out frustrated the fans and management. Needless to say, the yardstick for this season is to win Champions League. Bundesliga title annexure was a foregone conclusion even before this season began. Bayern are back in the semi-final stage where they are drawn to meet Pep’s old side Barcelona.
Bayern are offered odds of 3,40 by Unibet to emerge victorious in the continental championship. They definitely go as underdogs for the match against Barcelona, if the odds market is to be believed. At odds of 2,00 offered by Unibet they are expected to reach final. This is not just slightly higher than the odds of 1,35 offered for Barcelona.
If Guardiola fails to win the Champions League, there could be a scenario of Pep and Bayern parting ways. It is an open secret that Manchester City craves for the magic of Pep and are awaiting to see how the scene unfolds. City is willing to wait for one more year which is when Pep’s contract with Bayern ends. Little wonder then that at odds of 5,00 offered by Bwin it is expected that Pep would be the next Manchester City manager. This odd is probably higher because Bwin expects another City coach in the meantime. Not strangely enough, at odds of 3,50 Unibet thinks that he would be the next permanent manager for cross-town rivals Manchester United.
Guardiola lives by the success he has brought to Barcelona and Bayern. The high intensity he brings to every match is one of the reasons he loses interest after 3-4 years. To keep his appetite going, Guardiola has to prove successful in Europe this season.
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