Pep Guardiola has been wreaking havoc on all top EPL clubs with his early announcement to leave Bayern Munich. All that has finally come to an end.
What Pep Guardiola did is a bit underhanded and dirty, make no mistake about it. It was also a teeny bit arrogant. The man announced that he would be leaving Bayern Munich midway through the season and that he wanted to go the EPL. Given his track record, the havoc this caused in England was palpable. Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea were all swept up in the hype of one man.
BBC Sport’s report finally puts an end to his despicable speculation.
This came just minutes after the unfortunate Manuel Pellegrini “agreed to leave” the club at the end of the season.
The statement from Manchester City makes it sound exactly like you expected. They had been working to sign a deal with Pep Guardiola for some time, even before Pellegrini had agreed to make way. Here is the full statement, via Sky Sports:
“Manchester City can confirm that in recent weeks it has commenced and finalized contract negotiations with Pep Guardiola to become MCFC Head Coach for the 16/17 season onwards. The contract is for three years. These negotiations were a re-commencement of discussion that were curtailed in 2012. Out of respect for Manuel Pellegrini and the players, the club wishes to make its decision public to remove the unnecessary burden of speculation.”
The burden of speculation is what had terrorized the entire EPL. Poor Pellegrini is just the man that ended up getting the bullet in this rather unpleasant game of EPL gaffer roulette.
The current and soon-to-be-former manager of City did nothing wrong in his tenure at City. He brought home two trophies in three seasons and kept them always near the top of the table with key signings and an often over-powering side.
At the very least, the saga is finally over. Pep Guardiola got everything he wanted, as is always the case, and others were let go to make way. Now we get to see if he actually is everything is is cracked up to be. This is the ‘challenge’ he wanted.