5 footballers who were not preferred by Pep Guardiola

#4. Bastian Schweinsteiger

Some players like Steven Gerrard and Francesco Totti were born to play for their boyhood club. Bayern Munich have and had many such equivalents in their team and one of them was Bastian Schweinsteiger.

Schweinsteiger was a hero for the Bavarians and for German fans because of his never give up attitude, his charismatic personality and of course his performance. The German midfielder was the heart of the Bayern side that won the treble under Heynckes and he was expected to have a huge role under Guardiola as well.

Under Guardiola, Schweinsteiger had a decent first season despite some injury concerns. However, prior to the second season, Xabi Alonso arrived from Real Madrid and there were questions about the ability of Schweinsteiger and Alonso to play together. Alonso ended up having a terrific first season in Germany, while Schweinsteiger struggled with injuries and eventually played in only 28 games with a quarter of them coming off the bench. Even when he started games, he was regularly taken off by Guardiola.

Before the ongoing season kicked off, Bayern signed Arturo Vidal and this left space for only one of Alonso or Schweinsteiger in the team. Guardiola gave the green signal to sell the fan favourite Schweinsteiger who is nearly three years younger than Alonso and the decision to sell Schweinsteiger was obviously not taken well by the fans of Bayern Munich.