Pep Guardiola: I can imagine becoming Manchester United manager and emulating Sir Alex Ferguson
Bayern Munich manager Pep Guardiola was convinced he wanted to take over at Manchester United after a visit to Old Trafford in 2011
Guardiola, the former Barcelona coach recruited by Bayern before Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement as United manager at the end of the 2012-13 season, is under contract at the Allianz Arena until the end of the 2015-16 campaign.
Despite his commitment to the Bundesliga champions, the 43‑year-old remains one of the hottest properties in world football who, according to Spanish journalist Martí Perarnau in his book, Pep Confidential: The Inside Story of Pep Guardiola's First Season at Bayern Munich, was a target for Chelsea, Manchester City and AC Milan before December 2012 when he agreed to accept the challenge of succeeding Jupp Heynckes at Bayern at the end of that season.
Louis van Gaal, the man who appointed Guardiola as Barcelona captain during his time as coach at the Nou Camp, is only three months into a three-year contract to manage United which ends in the summer of 2017.
That makes the prospect of Guardiola moving elsewhere at the end of his three-year deal with Bayern in 2016 more likely than a switch to Old Trafford.
But having given Perarnau open-door access and full cooperation during the year-long project of writing the diary of his first campaign at Bayern, Guardiola's admission of being seduced by the prospect of managing United is unlikely to go unnoticed by senior figures at Old Trafford, who were frustrated by his unavailability in the wake of David Moyes's sacking as manager last April.
"From the start, Pep was well disposed to the overtures from the Bavarian club," Perarnau writes. "A year before, in late July 2011, not long after a resounding 3-1 victory in the Champions League final against Manchester United at Wembley, Barcelona competed in the Audi Cup in Munich.
"Pep liked the set-up at Säbener Strasse [Bayern's training complex], despite the fact that it was smaller than Barça's training ground and had fewer technical facilities.
"The Catalan was impressed and told Manel Estiarte [his personal assistant] privately: "I like this place. I could see myself coaching here one day. Pep had said something very similar a few months before, at Manchester United.
"The day after beating Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final, Guardiola and Estiarte travelled to Manchester to watch their next opponent in action.
"It was May 4, 2011, and the pair sat together in the stands of Old Trafford watching Sir Alex Ferguson's team beat Schalke 4-1. Once again Pep had turned to his friend and said: ‘I like this atmosphere. I could see myself coaching here one day.'
"Guardiola has always felt a deep admiration, almost veneration, for the legendary teams and players of Europe."
Guardiola is understood to have met Ferguson twice in New York during the first half of the 2012-13 campaign, when the former Barcelona coach was midway through his sabbatical in the city following his resignation at the Nou Camp at the end of the previous campaign.
It is not known whether Ferguson disclosed his plans to retire at the end of that season to Guardiola, or if the Scot offered Guardiola the opportunity to succeed him, but any hope of United luring the former Spain midfielder to Old Trafford was scuppered when Bayern confirmed, in January 2013, that he would become their manager from the start of the next season.
Perarnau goes on to claim in his book that Bayern fended off heavyweight rivals to secure Guardiola as coach following his exit from Barcelona.
"During his sabbatical year in New York, the job offers poured in," Perarnau wrote. "His ex-colleague, Txiki Begiristain, the director of football at Manchester City, was very insistent. "He also met up in Paris with Roman Abramovich, who was prepared to do anything to lure Pep to Chelsea.
"Bayern, too, were anxious to register an early interest and a delegation from Munich attended Pep's last game with Barça, the final of the Copa del Rey against Athletic Bilbao in Madrid on May 25 2012.
"In the event, the Bayern delegation did not get a chance speak to Guardiola, but they made their interest clear during a meeting with his agent. Within a few months, Pep had chosen Bayern."
When asked about the prospect of managing United last season following the sacking of Moyes in April, Guardiola pledged his loyalty to Bayern before admitting his future plans were yet to be resolved.
"I am here. I am at Bayern and I want to stay for two more years here," he said in April. "We won the Bundesliga but I feel our team can improve. I feel Bayern now is my team, but I feel we can play better, we can improve and I think I still have work to do.
"I am comfortable here. I work with very kind people here and I want to stay, but after that, I don't know what will happen."
The day Jose Mourinho pushed Pep Guardiola over the edge at Barcelona
A new book about the Bayern Munich manager reveals the inside story of why he finally snapped with his old Real Madrid rival
Pep Guardiola clashed with Jose Mourinho after the bad-tempered 2013 European Super Cup clash against Chelsea - but, as journalist Marti Perarnau reveals in a new book, their feud reached boiling point when they were at Barcelona and Real Madrid two years previously.
Pep Guardiola was pleasantly surprised by the reaction of Uli Hoeness and Kalle Rummenigge the day after the match against Chelsea in Prague.
Jose Mourinho, the Chelsea coach, had said: "Every time I play Pep I end up with 10 men. It must be some sort of Uefa rule."
What Mourinho forgot to say was that Ramires' tackle on Mario Götze, which saw him earn a second booking, had torn the ligaments of the German's ankle.
Bayern's top executives had immediately sprung to his defence. "Mourinho's comments are completely out of order - but then perhaps it was a different match he was watching."
Pep was taken aback because he was so unused to getting this level of support from his bosses. During his time atBarcelona he had had to deal with numerous unwarranted and serious attacks on the team, and his was often the sole voice raised in their defence.
In April 2011 Barcelona and Real Madrid had a run of four derbies in 18 days. These Clásicos were marred by Madrid players playing with an aggression bordering on violence, and more than one Barça player indulging in diving and other unsportsmanlike conduct. In the Copa del Rey final, the referee had, rightly, disallowed a goal by Pedro for offside. Guardiola said later: "A two-centimetre decision from a linesman who must have had a very good view ruled out Pedro's goal."
On April 26, Pep and his players were having lunch in the private restaurant of the Eurostars Madrid Tower Hotel. The television was showing Mourinho's press conference ahead of the Champions League semi-final they would be playing the next day. Pep had his back to the screen when one of his assistants suggested he turn around and listen.
"We have started a new cycle," Mourinho was saying. "Up until now there was a very small group of coaches who didn't talk about referees and a very large group, in which I am included, who criticise referees. Now, with Pep's comments, we have started a new era with a third group, featuring only one person, a man who criticises the referee when he makes good decisions. This is completely new to me."
Pep's players were also listening by this stage and were furious at Mourinho's words and his mocking tone. It was the last straw for Guardiola. "The time has come!"
A few months earlier, Pep had said to his closest colleagues: "I know Mourinho and he's trying to provoke me into a reaction, but it won't work. I'm not going to react. I'm not going to answer back. Only when I think the time is right."
Now his moment had come. At 8pm on the day before the match, the players left the training session at the Bernabéu, sensing that Pep was about to respond to Mourinho. Even senior management had heard that Pep was preparing a strongly-worded statement. Leaving the dressing room, one of the players closest to Guardiola wished him luck with the press conference, as did sports director Andoni Zubizarreta, who surprised him by saying: "We don't answer back, eh, Pep? We don't answer back. We like a low profile. A low profile."
Once again Pep was left feeling that the club had hung him out to dry and he decided to ignore management's advice and go ahead anyway.
"Señor Mourinho has permitted himself the luxury of calling me Pep, so I will call him Jose," he said. "Tomorrow at 8.45pm we face each other on the pitch. He has won the battle off the pitch. If he wants his own personal Champions League trophy away from the pitch, let him take it home and enjoy it. In this room [the Bernabéu press room] Mourinho is the f------ chief, the f------ boss. He knows all about this and I don't want to compete with him in here. I'd just like to remind him that I worked with him for four years [at Barcelona]. He knows me and I know him.
"If he prefers to value the views of the journalist friends who take their information in a drip feed from Florentino Pérez more than the relationship we had for four years then that's his choice. I try to learn from Jose on the pitch, but I prefer to learn as little as possible from him off the pitch."
Pep's response had inflamed an already tense situation. When he arrived at the team hotel, his men were waiting to give him a standing ovation. They considered the response long overdue.
These were players who had also been accused of a range of transgressions including doping, dirty tricks, play acting and exerting undue influence over referees - and all of this whilst the club's management pursued their apathetic policy of maintaining a low profile. The senior executives were not interested in defending them, but now Guardiola had stepped in. And he'd done it in the right place at exactly the right time.
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