On Friday Pep Guardiola announced that he will be leaving Barcelona at the end of the season.
During his four year tenure at Barca, Guardiola guided the Spanish outfit to 13 major honours including three la Liga titles and two Champions League trophies.
In just a short space of time, Guardiola has undoubtedly become one of the most talented managers in world football today, and I’m sure a queue of clubs the size of Spain will be closely monitoring his whereabouts whilst he takes a break from the game.
Now the point of this blog was not to praise Pep’s work at Barcelona, but it leads on to something that I have be dwelling on since I read/heard that the 41-year-old will be leaving the current La Liga champions.
The scenario I have been thinking about over and over in my head is this – Arsene Wenger leaves Arsenal in the summer to take up the Barcelona hot-seat, with Robin van Persie following him to Catalonia!
Undoubtedly, this would be the single worst thing that could potentially happen to Arsenal FC in recent memory. Period!
When asked by reporters if he wants the Barca job, Wenger simply replied:
‘I’m happy here.’
It seems a fairly conclusive answer to me, one that I expected to hear by Le Boss. But things can change very quickly in football.
Earlier in the season, a small group of Arsenal fans were calling for the sacking of Wenger after the club’s poor start, while the media suggested that the Wiley old Frenchman has possibly done all he can for the Gunners.
He definitely won’t admit it, but after hearing a (small) section of his own fans demanding his resignation and the media criticizing his recent management style, surely Wenger has questioned whether he is indeed still the right man for the Arsenal job. Surely after nearly 16 years in charge of the north London club he must be thinking to himself, ‘perhaps it is time for me to move on and seek out new pastures’.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not calling for the man to resign, but surely Arsene is tempted by the prospect of managing a massive club Barcelona? With all due respect, the man would be a fool not to consider the job, despite his love for our club.
IF, and this is a big IF, Wenger does (for some reason) decide to call time on his tenure at Arsenal and take the job at Barca, firstly, I think our club would go into a crazy downward spiral. Secondly, I could see Robin van Persie being his first signing, which would most definitely leave us in the sh*t!
This is of course, as the title of this piece suggests, would be ‘the worst case scenario’ which could possibly ensue during the summer. Hopefully it won’t, but you just never know in football. In addition, I’m sorry if this blog seems pessimistic in anyway, but I thought I would express my concerns to fellow Gooners and Goonerretes.
Anyway, I reckon I’ll leave it there because the thought of both our iconic manager and talisman/captain leaving in the same summer is leaving me with some sharp pains in my head!
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Tito Villanova will coach Barca next season. They’re not looking for a coach so Arsene is safe for now :D. However, they might go for van Persie since Villa is on his way out and a striker who can score on a regular basis is sorely needed.
If there’s one thing you can bet your mortgage on it’s Wenger seeing out his contract until it expires. Wenger ALWAYS sticks to the terms and conditions. The second thing is Guardiola ISN’T the new massiah. This is a guy who inherited the finest footballing squad in the world and told them to “close down” a bit. I’d very interested to see what he can do with a team that aren’t all friends, that don’t have the skills of Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, David Villa etc. How would he do with a team that don’t win every single match, championship, cup…..oh hang on a minute he’d quit wouldn’t he?!!
He didn’t inherit that squad. He inherited one led by a few playboys who he instantly sold on. It was a brave, bold move. He’s a very, very good manager so show some respect.
So what your saying is that he didn’t inherit Valdes, Puyol, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Yaya, Pique, Keita, Alves, Abidal, Pedro and Sergio B? Who were there when he took over in 2008, are still there now, and have been the core of “his” title winning teams? Is that what you’re saying? I like Guardiola he’s a nice guy so it has nothing to do with respect. What I’m saying is that any old manager could’ve won stuff with that squad. Even Terry Connor could’ve had at least 10 trophies with that lot and the back up of ill gotten bank loans.
Pique,Keita & Alves were Guardiola’s first transfers while Pedro & Busquets were promoted by him.
It was Guardiola who put Messi in the false 9 position where before he was utilized as a right winger and gave Iniesta a starting spot which he never had under Rijkaard.
He, singlehandedly stopped Xavi’s transfer to Chelsea and redefined his role in the team.
So it seems your argument is invalid.
Well no it’s not invalid to be fair. Read all of my reply and you’ll see that maybe I got 3 out 12 incorrect. So theres still 9 players that he had at his disposal already….FACT!
Guardiola is a quitter.he would never be able to run a club in England. Not even Man city
May be not this summer but next. walcott wenger and rvp will all be out of contract then and can leave for free.
Pep and cesc are both loosers. Let’s start with cesc, young kid from barca taken to arsenal at age 16 by wenger. Under wengers watchful eye he has grown to be one of arsenals best players with the team being build around him and just when the time is ripe for him to deliver the goods, what does he do?? He suddenly claims that he is homesick and wants to rejoin his boyhood club……..that to me is a coward considering he was arsenal captain at the time. He was eager to play for barca coz there he would fit in well and have less responsibility due to to the raw talent that he’d be engulfed in. So with that said i’m happy the CL trophy eluded him just to remind him that the grass isn’t always greener………..pep is the same too, barca are having a blip in their season after infinite successes and he suddenly decides that it’s the right time to take a sabbatical from managerial duties——that to me is a fucking looser. A proper coach/man should stick through the good and the bleak.
@49Unbeaten. No Manager takes over a team without inheriting certain players but Pep sold the core of the team i.e Deco, Ronaldinho & Eto’o, promoted some youth players while bringing out the best out the team as a whole. please give credit where its due.
i can see alot of barce fans are awake, weee heeee,
managers like harry redknapp deserve alot of credit, where ever he goes he does a brilliant job, mourinho is the same, i dont like the guy but hes a true winner and deserves credit for that, i dont like pep and with a struggling team he wouldnt do anything, wenger made arsenal very consistant until the players either retired or were sold, the next generation never stepped up, pep is only big coz he inherited some world class players and made them into a team, if pep guardiola went to a team say norwich or wigan and made them title contenders and he has my RESPECT and applause 🙂
Wenger will not leave Arsenal this summer. He repects the length of the contract that he signs and has never broken them in his entire managerial career. He will stay with us at least until the end of next season when his current contract expires.
This is a stupid article. Have you not learn already? Wenger never breaks his contract. Never did and never will.
I’m sorry to say but Guardiola is over rated just as Moroniho is! Rijkaard did all the hard work and gel them into a team then Guardiola just ripped the reward. Same as Moroniho, Ranieri did all the hard work, worked out his best team then Moroniho came alone and call himself the special one and everyone went crazy. Thinking he’s god. The man has no shame and is a complete moron. Had Arsenal not going through the entire season unbeaten, Chelsea would have won the EPL under Ranieri. I think they were only 4 points behind at the end of the season. So same situation, but people are stupid and bunch of glory hunters that can’t see through the truth. It’s too bad a lot of people aren’t getting the credit they deserve.
Give them a mid-table team and no money to spend and see where they end up! Moyes had no money to spend and yet he’s able to constantly challenge for Europe. Wenger have no money to spend and able to keep Arsenal in the CL every year and challenge for the league on 2 occasions. Redknapp has kept most of his club in administration. These are the truly great managers……
Oooooppps, did I say Rednapp?