Pep Guardiola plays it safe with Bayern

After much speculation and reams of newsprint tripping over what Josep ‘Pep’ Guardiola’s next destination would be, the man himself came out a couple of days ago and ended it all. He will coach Bayern Munich, having signed a three-year contract at the German club and will take over after the end of the current campaign.

While this news is fantastic for German fans and, in particular, Bayern Munich supporters, other clubs like Chelsea and, perhaps, Manchester City will be left more than a tad disappointed. Guardiola’s decision, when looked objectively, is quite a simple one, really. Why would one want to go to Chelsea, anyway? Well, only if one wants to manage for a few months and get a fat severance paycheck. Manchester City seem to be marginally better, but with mega-rich owners, one never knows really.

Bayern, in many ways, are quite similar to Barcelona. It is a club that has passed the stage of transition and is now firmly one of the best clubs in Europe. The squad is stable and has been playing together for a while now. Bayern play possession football with extreme pace at times and careful caution at others. Most of the team (15 out of 26 in the current first team) are German.

This is not un-similar to Barcelona and Spain (or Catalunya, if you will). While Barcelona may or may not be in large mountains of debt (I am not too familiar with the workings of Spanish clubs but I have read reports of Barcelona being both comfortably well off and indeed in the doldrums), Bayern is a most efficiently run machine (yes, the German metaphor and all that).

The only question then is, did Pep choose the easy option? There seem to be people who firmly believe that he did indeed. After achieving what can only be described as phenomenal success with Barcelona, he believed that it was time to move on. Most people expected him to be lured by the passion on English football and he said so himself. It then did come as something of a surprise when, hardly a couple of days later, he announced that he would be joining Bayern. ‘It is too simple’, people say. He is just going into a comfortable job where all he has to do is to make sure that the things that ain’t broke don’t need fixing.

People, or should we say expectant Chelsea fans, were hoping to see Pep in London. A challenge, Chelsea would certainly have been. Of that, there is no doubt. However, would Chelsea really have suited his style? For one, he would have had to overhaul the squad quite a bit to incorporate his style. This, however, posed a problem. After all, the appointment and subsequent sacking of AVB is a ready precedent. Mr. Abramovich is known to be, well, finicky. Perhaps Pep did not want this, at this point in his career.

He did say that during the end of his tenure at Barcelona, he was completely stressed out and it got a bit too much. Perhaps he wanted something that was simpler. He did not want to work for a rich whimsical owner or maybe he had no plans to come to England at all. At this point in time anyway.

Another compelling angle is this. Guardiola has only signed a three-year contract. From the news that has emerged, there seems to be no clause of a possible extension. That would mean that, if all went well, in 2016, he would come to the end of a successful stint at Bayern Munich. He would have won three German Championships, a couple of domestic Cups, and if lucky, a Champions League or two.

Meanwhile, to the West, another era would be fast approaching an end. Not in London though but further up north, in Manchester. A certain manager would be approaching three decades of dominance. Maybe the set-up is perfect; for a certain Portuguese to have his say in this matter, as well.