Guardiola chooses Bayern over Chelsea and City. But why?

Pep Guardiola is returning from his sabbatical at the end of the 2012-2013 season. The iconic former Barcelona manager, who won 14 out of a possible 19 titles in his 4 years at the Catalan Club and ushered in the greatest era for the Catalans, has finally decided to join FC Bayern Munich at the end of the 2012-2013 season. Ever since he took a sabbatical last year to spend time with his family in the soccer backwaters of New York, away from football crazy Europe , he had been linked to numerous clubs like Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal, Manchester United, AC Milan and even the Brazilian National Team. Obviously, as is the case with most such stories, most of these were just fantasies of a hyper-imaginative mind but some of them did have more substance to them than rumours. The strongest claims were those of Chelsea and Manchester City. The English Press repeatedly ran stories connecting Guardiola to Chelsea and City.

Stories connecting Guardiola to Chelsea picked up steam after the sacking of Roberto Di Matteo. Roman Abramovich had harboured ambitions of his Chelsea squad playing a style of football similar to FC Barcelona’s. He made funds available to Di Matteo to sign talented young midfielders like Eden Hazard, Oscar, Victor Moses etc. to make this possible. These new signings, especially Hazard and Oscar, combined with Juan Mata to form a very fast, agile midfield widely known as “MAZACAR” which could tear up defences. The new look midfield of Chelsea achieved initial success but cracks were exposed in their system later on and exploited by their opponents. Chelsea suffered a bad run of form in the Premier League, dropping from 1st to 3rd. The thrashing by Juventus in the Champions League proved to be the final straw. That 3-0 thrashing at the hands of the Italian giants, where Juventus midfielders were easily able to drift into the empty spaces left by “MAZACAR”, dealt a severe blow to Di Matteo and his hopes of replicating Barcelona. It also put Chelsea in a very precarious situation in the Champions League and finally led to their elimination from the group stages itself. Di Matteo was immediately sacked and according to certain rumours, Guardiola was approached for the job but he turned Chelsea down. Rafa Benitez was appointed as interim Chelsea manager but he has still not been able to win the hearts of the Stamford Bridge faithful who could not forget his comments against Chelsea from his Liverpool days. Abramovich, according to rumours, still had his eyes on Guardiola who he believed could bring “Tiki-Taka” to Chelsea.

Now moving to boardrooms of City, Sheikh Mansour had reportedly lost patience with Mancini. Though the Italian Manager had been able to deliver City’s first Premier League title after 44 years, City’s continued poor performance in the Champions League had become a talking point. City could not win a single game in the Champions League in 2012 and relinquished the league table topper position to bitter rivals United after the 3-2 derby loss. Mansour has invested a lot of his money in the club, reportedly to the tune of a billion dollars, which is more than the net value of many top clubs and he obviously wants consistent results from his manager.

Both these clubs were frontrunners to secure Guardiola’s signature. English Media repeatedly suggested that the Premier League was the place to be for Guardiola. There were talks about mouthwatering tactical battles between, Guardiola, Ferguson, Wenger and possibly Jose Mourinho. However, in a spectacular coup, Bayern beat both Chelsea and City to his signature. This has come as a surprise to many in the soccer world who were following developments related to Guardiola very closely.

What could have been the factors which persuaded Guardiola to take up a job in Germany which, according to many fans of the EPL, is an inferior league? Here, we examine some factors which might have been crucial to this decision.

1. Bayern’s Squad

If someone were to rank European sides on the basis of their squad strength, Bayern would be ranking high up on their list. With players like Mario Gomez, Mario Mandzukic, Arjen Robben, Franck Ribery, Thomas Muller, Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Holger Badstuber among their ranks, Bayern boast of a formidable squad capable of beating the best in Europe. They also have a galaxy of young players like Xherdan Shaqiri, David Alaba and Toni Kroos. They reached the UEFA Champions League Final last year, beating Real Madrid on the way and only losing to Chelsea on penalties. Similar to Barcelona for Spain, they have been the major supply line for the German National Team.

2. Bayern’s illustrious history

Bayern has an illustrious history, comparable to the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, AC Milan, Juventus, Manchester United and Liverpool. They have won 22 Bundesliga titles, 15 German Cups, 4 European titles and a host of other trophies. They were home to players like Gerd Muller, Franz Beckenbauer, Sepp Maier etc. Contrast this to Chelsea and City, whose history begins from the date their “Sugar Daddy” owners took over. Therefore, it can be understood that Bayern’s history could have appealed to a person like Guardiola and resonated with the romantic in him.

3. Fan-run club just like Barcelona

Bayern Munich is a fan-run club just like Barcelona. Bundesliga has the 50+1 % rule which ensures that major control of the club remains within the club, thus making most of the clubs fan-run. This would have attracted Guardiola as he would feel comfortable in familiar surroundings, unlike Chelsea and City which have super rich oil men running the club.

4. Superior Financial Health

This point would surprise many readers, because don’t we know that Chelsea and City have more cash to splash in the transfer market? However, with FFP regulations being put into place, checks could be imposed on the spending of clubs like City and Chelsea. However Bayern would only benefit from the FFP Regulations. Bundesliga has had its own version of FFP in place for many years now. Bundesliga clubs rarely spend more than they earn because of the regulations in place which leads to their books remaining clean from debt. Despite these regulations, Bayern enjoys a financial clout and can compete in the transfer market with any of the top names. This makes Bayern a “self made club” unlike Chelsea and City which depend on the mercy of their owners. This point can be further emphasized by the fact that most Spaniards consider the German League to be a “pure” league, compared to their league which is ridden by serious structural problems and economic crisis. Bayern, however, is a well run club with no extraordinary debts on its books which attracts managers.

5. Passionate local Fan Base

Whatever be the opinion of English Football Fans about Bundesliga, German Football fans flock to the stadiums to watch Bundesliga games. Infact, Bundesliga is the soccer league with the highest attendance per match and is second highest among the sports leagues, only behind NFL. There are various reasons behind this, most prominently fans being shareholders of the club which makes them a part of the club (remember the 50+1 rule!). The cost of tickets for Bundesliga games is very cheap compared to EPL and incidents like Man City returning 900 tickets to Arsenal because of the prohibitive costs (62 pounds in this case) are unheard of in Bundesliga. This makes the atmosphere at stadiums very vibrant and most of the fans are very passionate about their club. Any manager loves to have a passionate local fan base at home matches to cheer on the players and this would have drawn Guardiola to Bayern.

6. Dealing with people who know about football

Bayern’s board consists of former Bayern greats like Ulli Hoeness and Karl-Heinze Rummenigge, people who know about football and its intricacies and can be a great help to Guardiola. They also have more exposure to Bayern and can help Guardiola with the style of play of Bayern. It does have businessmen and the likes on its board but they generally play a supporting role to these members. Contrast this with Chelsea and City, who only have business graduates with fancy MBA’s but who have never kicked a ball among its board members.

7. Job Security and interference by the owner

Roman Abramovich has established quite a reputation for firing managers. He has fired managers like Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Guus Hiddink, Luiz Felipe Scolari etc. Just a few defeats and a manager can be fired even if he has won lots of trophies for the club. Roberto Di Matteo is a good example in support of this. He had delivered Chelsea’s “Holy Grail” The UEFA Champions League but was fired just after a few games of bad form. No manager would like to work in such a stressful environment. Moreover, Abramovich also interferes in matters regarding team selection and transfers, denying the manager a free hand.

8. Respect for the managers

Pep Guardiola made it clear that he would not talk to a club with a manager out of respect. Jupp Heyneckes had already made it clear that he would be retiring at the end of the season, therefore clearing the decks for Bayern to sign Guardiola after this season. But the same was not true for City and Chelsea which have managers in place (Mancini and Benitez would be popping open champagne bottles over this one!). This could also have been the reason why Manchester United and Arsenal could not land his signature, if at all they tried.

I would conclude that the superior moral quality of Bayern, which has a sense of tradition and history, prevailed over ‘plastic’ clubs like City and Chelsea.

Thank you for lending me your ears. Vielen Dank!