Pep Guardiola waiting for club to "seduce" him http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18202900 Departing Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola says he will be ready to return to management in the future for a club that "seduces" him. The 41-year-old, who quit as Barca boss to take time away from the game, takes charge of his final match on Friday. "I will receive all calls with pleasure, but for the next [few] months I have to recharge my batteries and my mind," said Guardiola. "I will be ready [to return] if one club wants me and seduces me. In an ideal world, i would gladly bring Guardiola to Arsenal. I am also convinced that Arsenal is the perfect club for him to work his magic on. We represent everything good that i'm sure he is looking for. But also in an ideal world, i would get rid of all the bloomin lords and "jobs for the boys" club of our board. Although i do agree with many that the board is withholding crucial funds to Wenger, i also agree that Wenger has lost his edge and is no longer the man he was in his early days. He is obsessed with his philosphy and is struggling to make it into a winning a formula that he is neglecting our most obvious flaws. A perfect example is our defensive side, which is still not satisfactory after so many rickety years....
Hmmm. I think it's been a fairly easy ride at Barca for Pep to be honest. A squad full of stellar players and an almost bottomless pit of money to procure whoever he wanted. Coupled with their fans at UEFA. I think the job at Arsenal is a lot tougher.
I think you underestimate the job Guardiola did at Barca. He transformed the defensive side of their game, blending a style of brilliant attack with a work ethic without the ball that we could only dream of under Wenger. I would be delighted if he replaced Wenger in a years time.
Wenger is past his best and we should be straight in for Guardiola. Unfortunately the idiots in charge of Arsenal, i.e Hill Wood, etal are too stupid to realise it, so it is unlikely to happen.
Wenger has had plenty of resources but chosen not to spend it. Hill Wood and Gazidis have said several times that there is money if Arsene wants to spend it. The resources issue continues to be an excuse, because it it easier than facing up to the reality that Wenger has made serious mistakes. Even without the resources, why can Wenger not get the team to work as hard as Barca without the ball?
Agree with Jayram Barcelona were awful in Rijkaards last season they finished 3rd and as far off the title as I can ever remember. Guardiola basically started from scratch and built the club up to be the best in world football. People said he was mad when he got rid of Deco, Ronaldinho, Henry and Eto'o but it worked wonders
This, Guardiola has shown lack of a plan B when teams park the bus which Wenger is guilty of but given his squad I was expecting Barca to beat the likes of Chelsea especially when they had a man down. Put a player like Messi in our team and we start looking great again. Yes he has won many trophies but the only real competition is Real the other teams are so inferior to those two that it’s a joke, the Premiership is a completely different animal and I don’t think he would know how to deal with teams like Stoke especially with inferior players than the ones he currently has. Wenger has done quite well against Pep’s team in my opinion, they drew and lost to us at the Emirates when no one gave us a hope against them even at home, and we could have very well have got through if RVP wasn’t sent off and Bedntner had taken his chance
Yes Guardiola had a bigger budget, but it wasn't about him buying loads of players, it's what he did with those players that stands out. Wenger simply does not deal with our defensive side properly, and this has been going on for a number of years. As Jayram pointed out, he transformed the work ethic and defensive side of their game. Not only are Barca so hard to get the ball off (which is largely due to their excellent personal i admit) but it's the way they work off the ball that is so striking. They never let you keep the ball for longer than a few seconds. The way they descend onto you like a swarm of bees and dispose you is amazing. We are so inconsistent and sloppy in comparison. We switch off at times and struggle to close out a game we've been dominating for the majority of the time. Can you honestly, hand on heart, think that Wenger will deal with this problem? You know that it's been a problem for many years now but he appears to be doing little about it. The next big thing is will Bould have an impact? Will he actually impose himself on Wenger and bring his own idea's/point out problems, or will he become a yes man....? We have a good squad with some young quality players coming through - Wilshere, OXO, Miyaichi, Campbell, Frimpong, Chesney, Gibbs etc. Add to the older quality we have and the new players he could bring in, i am certain he would make us successful again.
I agree that Wenger needs to address our defensive problems. I've been saying this all season. My point was though, that I don't think Pep would find the job as easy at Arsenal as he has at Barca.
I agree, of course he wouldn't. But whats the point of a challenge if it was easy? Just imagine if your job was really easy, would you be happy? No. Everyone needs to be challenged and kept on their toes, thats what makes life interesting!
I agree. But illustrates my point. The relative success that Pep has enjoyed with Barca would be much harder to create with Arsenal. I don't care what excuses people make, we have had some pretty severe financial restrictions as far as squad investment is concerned and as pointed out, the Premier League is far more competitive overall that La Liga, where basically, two teams dominate. I think some people may believe that Pep would simply come in and transform our club, but I don't think they realise how difficult that would be. That said, I wouldn't be opposed if we were to suddenly employ him as our manager.
What Wenger has done financially is quite amazing. However, we have to stop being sentimental now and look for the future. See how Wenger and co does next season and seriously assess the situation then. Personally we should put our marker on Pep and let him know that we are interested. If Wenger does well then we continue with Arsene, if he has another indifferent season or a bad one, then we have to secure Arsenal's interests. The priority i feel is bringing Arsenal to a very competitive level, a level that we used to be. We have the players coming through, we just need the right navigator....
Pep is all wrong for Chelsea. He would have to change their entire playing ethos to be compatible. We are a perfect match for him.
Yet Wenger still got us 3rd place, dispite the extragent spending of Liverpool, Chelsea and Man Citeh, dispite the horrendous injuries we have had and dispite the spuds having their star striker being paid for by one of our rivals.... Ho hum.
That was a good achievement but if you look into what really happened, you'll realise that Chelsea had one of their worst Premier league outings in a long while (due AVB and other issues) and Spurs had a huge implosion towards the end. We had a heavy slice of luck getting 3rd. Will we get the same level of luck next season? I wouldn't bank on it. The fact is Man City, Man U, Chelsea and probably Spurs will all get stronger. The reality is, we still have the RVP situation hanging around our necks, a situation we didn't want especially as he's our best player by some margin and our seasons saviour. If we have a repeat of last season, then this would make for a very bad start to the season.
C'mon, this "work ethic without a ball" thing is such an obvious strength of Barca for many years that each and every Tom, Dick and 'Arry knows about it. Do you seriously thing Wenger is unaware about it??? Wenger knows about it, Pat Rice knew about it , every single coach at Arsenal from a youth level knows about it and everyone is trying to copy it. Wenger has been trying it for at least 3 years. The difference is not Guardiola, it is the current bunch of Barca players who are capable of doing it . Arsenal players know the importance of it too well, the problem is they are just not capable of doing it. And If Guardiola ever tries to do it again in EPL he will soon realize that with the higher average tempo of the English Premier League it is simply impossible. Barca can do it against lesser and slower Spanish teams and occasionally against top teams. But even they will not be able to do it week in week out in EPL. Barcelona (and Real) brilliance is based on an extremely favourable regime where too many games in fact is just a training where they can physically and mentally relax. No such thing in EPL. So Guardiola is in for a big surprise. (I am sure he knows it as well)
& you'll also realise that we had our worst start to a season for 58 years, yet still did better than Spurs and Chelsea. Does it make any difference that Chelsea had a bas season and that Spuds imploded? No. ALL that matters is that we finished above them. We had our own problems also. Man U, Man C, Spuds and Chelsea will possible get stronger, they may not. Chelsea have lost Drogba and may lose others, there is a mini-van parked at ****e hart lane for the spuds players, but we will definitely get stronger. We have already added Podolski, before the window opens.
