In-depth: Does Pep Guardiola need to swap Bayern Munich or the Premier League for a fifth-tier club?
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Updated 15/01/2016 at 08:01 GMT
Pep Guardiola's achievements as a coach have been rubbished by a rival manager, who has suggested that the Spaniard has had nothing but simple jobs.
Pep Guardiola
Image credit: AFP
THE CRITICISM
Frank Wormuth, Germany's Under-20 coach and the man in charge of the German FA's coach training facilities, said that Guardiola is a talented man but added that his reputation has been built on little more than guiding sublime teams to glory.
"Pep Guardiola is an outstanding coach but, with all due respect, he has so far only coached outstanding teams," Wormuth told Suddeutsche Zeitung.
"I would love to see him at an average fifth-division side," he added.
"There are tactical wizards in the third league," he added.
"Should we call someone, who is highlighted by the media, 'the world's best coach'?
"There are many good coaches who put in great performances with players of lesser quality."
Wormuth did not just speak in general terms - he also picked out specific reasons why Guardiola's life has been made easy, suggesting that his much-lauded tactical flexibility is a simple thing to pull off given the talent at his disposal.
"At Bayern Munich, David Alaba can play three positions on a similar level," he explained, choosing an example.
"At other clubs, defenders just play long balls, and when the defender has to play on the right wing it just doesn't work out."
WHAT SETS COACHES APART?
Wormuth also gave his opinion that the signs of a good coach come down to "the small situations, what he says when things don't go that well."
"I am not talking about the major crises, but rather those little things during a match -- to feel when a player has a negative vibe and withdraw him, to spot that the opponent has a problem on the left side and utilise that.
"Those are the details of the everyday business, which are highly interesting and identify a good coach."
WHAT PEP HAS ACHIEVED
Guardiola has very nearly tried fifth-tier coaching: his career started off with Barcelona's B team, whom he guided from the fourth tier - the Tercera - to the third (Segunda B).
After that success, he was promoted to first team coach - and led the side to its first-ever treble in his first season at the helm.
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Barcelona´s players celebrate with their coach Josep Guardiola (top) after winning the Champions League Cup on May 27, 2009 at the Olympic Stadium in Rome. Barcelona defeated Manchester United 2-0 in the final of the UEFA football Champions League
Image credit: AFP
The former midfielder won two more league titles, another Champions League and another Copa del Rey title in his next three seasons before taking a sabbatical year.
After that he joined Bayern Munich, with who he has won successive Bundesliga titles - both at a canter - and a DFB Pokal (German Cup) crown.
So is the criticism fair? Let's take a critical look at Guardiola's successes.
Barcelona B
Guardiola's credentials here seem unimpeachable. After all, no coach can do more than win the league that their team is in. However, Guardiola took over a side that had just been relegated to its lowest tier in over 30 years - in other words, his achievement was in taking players who had been performing and returning them to their proper level rather than anything more astounding. He clearly still did a good job - but it was hardly anything extraordinary.
What he did: Won the league that his team was in.
What he didn't do: Anything that the average League Two-winning manager hasn't managed.
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Barcelona president Joan Laporta (L) shakes hands with his new coach and former Barcelona player Pep Guardiola after he signed a two-year contract to coach the club on June 5, 2008 in Barcelona.
Image credit: AFP
Barcelona
Undoubtedly Guardiola's crowning glory. He inherited a team that had won the Liga and Champions League just two years beforehand; but by the summer of 2008, that Barcelona side had failed to win another trophy. He bravely announced almost immediately that superstars such as Ronaldinho, Deco and Samuel Eto'o were to be sold off - the first two went, but the latter stayed... and scored 36 goals in arguably the finest season of his career.
As for the rest of the squad? Yes, he had the likes of Andres Iniesta, Xavi, Yaya Toure, Thierry Henry and of course Lionel Messi at his disposal... but then again, all of those players had been in the squad in the hugely-underwhelming previous season under Frank Rijkaard. Rijkaard's tenure started brilliantly but ended badly - yet in fact it was he who sowed almost all the seeds for the treble-winners.
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Barcelona´s Argentinian forward Lionel Messi (L) and French forward Thierry Henry celebrate with the Champions League Cup afte the trophy ceremony on May 27, 2009 at the Olympic Stadium in Rome. Barcelona defeated Manchester United 2-0 in the final of the
Image credit: AFP
With all those players - best-of-their-generation talents - all then bedding in and coming to their peak under Guardiola, the Spanish side were unstoppable. Yet they weren't without their flaws, most notably the ill-fated decision to swap Eto'o for Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Eto'o ended up winning another treble with Inter Milan. Zlatan, meanwhile, claims he was horrendously mismanaged and even bullied by Guardiola.
What he did: Had the guts to stop building the team around Ronaldinho, and instead build it around Messi, Xavi and Iniesta. Also bedded in sublime talents such as Henry and Toure who had not yet hit their peak for Barca.
What he didn't do: 'Discover' Lionel Messi, Xavi or Iniesta.
Bayern Munich
This is where the criticism from Wormuth will really sting. Guardiola inherited a side who had just won the treble under Jupp Heynckes. He has guided them to successive league titles, and one domestic cup. But pre-Guardiola, Bayern appeared in three Champions League finals in four years; since he took over they have not made it beyond the semi-finals.
What's more, star players Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery seem to have been riddled with injuries since Guardiola took over, and Lothar Matthaus said a few weeks ago that Guariola "can't coach a defence". Bayern do not appear to have fought especially hard to have kept Guardiola in his post.
What he did: Guided a treble-winning side to win two league titles in hugely impressive form, by 19 points and 10 points.
What he didn't do: Match the standard set by his predecessor.
OUR VIEW
On the one hand, we can see where Wormuth is coming from: Guardiola's Barcelona B and Bayern Munich sides, while impressive, did little more than what was expected of them.
As for Barcelona's first team? It would be easy to diminish Guardiola's achievement there as well, by suggesting that a team stuffed with such outrageous talent could surely not have failed.
But that argument simply doesn't hold water. Plenty of teams struggle or underperform despite being stuffed with talent - just look at Jose Mourinho's final months at Real Madrid or Chelsea for your proof.
Then there is Guardiola's skill in turning talented players such as Messi and Xavi into all-time greats. Would either have become the player they did without his faith?
Finally, there is the assumption that lies at the heart of Wormuth's suggestion: that a great coach would be great at any level.
That is simply not true. It's like suggesting that Lewis Hamilton can't be considered the best driver in the world until he's won the World Touring Car Championship title. Yes, it would be fascinating to see him try, but WTCC needs many different skills to F1; just as guiding a team of no-hopers to maximise their potential in a semi-professional league takes very different skills to nurturing exquisite talent and balancing giant-size egos.
Of course, there are other challenges which would give him the chance to prove himself more completely than he will be able to in Manchester or London. Wouldn't it be incredible - not least for fans - to see whether Guardiola could turn, say, Mark Hughes's squad at Stoke City into Premier League champions? Or make Newcastle United a Champions League side once more?
Of course it would. But you'd be asking Guardiola to take a huge pay cut in order to take on a role that is harder and more thankless than anything he has done for years. Why would he do that? For while Guardiola may or may not be the greatest coach in the world, one thing is for sure: he is very far from stupid.
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