Pep Guardiola: I left Barca for personal reasons

Pep Guardiola has disputed reports that he left Barcelona because he felt he could no longer lift the club’s players.

“Maybe I did not explain myself well,” Guardiola told Mundo Deportivo. “It was a purely personal matter. I felt the moment had come."

Guardiola, who led Bayern Munich to the quickest Bundesliga title in history on Tuesday with a 3-1 win against Hertha Berlin, left the Camp Nou in 2012 after winning 14 trophies in four seasons.

He had been reported as saying that he was no longer able to reach his team, and that realisation had convinced him to move on.

“They are responsible for all the successes we achieved, just like those of Bayern," he said. "Barca’s players motivate themselves. I did not teach Xavi [Hernandez] or [Andres] Iniesta to play.

“We coaches are there to give them a hand, but they have played that way for 20 years. Coaches do not make players play well. They played well enough without me.”

After falling short in La Liga and the Champions League during Guardiola’s final season at the Camp Nou, Barca won the domestic title with a record 100 points under successor Tito Vilanova the following year, even though he was absent for long spells through illness.

Guardiola has played down his part in that achievement, preferring instead to focus on the good work done by Vilanova.

“I would give myself a certain part of that, but that is a personal question,” Guardiola said. “With me they would not have had the success they had with Tito Vilanova.”

Pep, so humble

This man is all class.   

False modesty more than genuine humbleness. “With me they would not have had the success they had with Tito Vilanova”, is almost a pisstake.

So fussball do u prefer Pep or Mou?

BarcaLearning wrote:So fussball do u prefer Pep or Mou?

They are both the same. Mou is overdoing the "I'm not politically correct, I'm the only one who dares to say what everyone thinks" Tony Montana thing whereas Pep is overdoing the "I'm just an unimportant little man - Ibrahimovic says he wanted to punch me? Well, I want to thank him for his contributions which helped us win La Liga, he's a great player" gentleman thing.

Just 2 big multi millionaire egos. In terms of football, which is the only thing I care about at the end of the day, Pep trumps Mourinho by far though.

Fußball wrote:

Just 2 big multi millionaire egos. In terms of football, which is the only thing I care about at the end of the day, Pep trumps Mourinho by far though.

very debatable

He left la liga to join Bayern instead. More like he was afraid of competition.

farfan wrote:

Fußball wrote:

Just 2 big multi millionaire egos. In terms of football, which is the only thing I care about at the end of the day, Pep trumps Mourinho by far though.

very debatable

BarcaLearning asked about my preference. Should have added "IMO" probably. If we think result-oriented I guess Pep wouldn't be able to take this current Chelsea as it is and compete for the Premier League as his Cruyffian tactics aren't compatible with those players and Pep hasn't proven any other coaching methods yet whereas Mourinho could be successful with Bayern or Barca or any team as this is a proven fact. On the other hand if Mourinho took over Barca in 2008 he would have probably sold Xavi and Iniesta because they are too weak and built his midfield around Yaya Toure, Keita and Busquets and it would have probably been successful as well in a different way. Doubt it would have ever gone done as "the best team of all time" though as the beauty and total dominance would be non-existent. It would be more like his Real Madrid side but with Messi instead of Ronaldo where he'd actually win big titles. Minus the football purism.

Fußball wrote:

farfan wrote:

Fußball wrote:

Just 2 big multi millionaire egos. In terms of football, which is the only thing I care about at the end of the day, Pep trumps Mourinho by far though.

very debatable

BarcaLearning asked about my preference. Should have added "IMO" probably. If we think result-oriented I guess Pep wouldn't be able to take this current Chelsea as it is and compete for the Premier League as his Cruyffian tactics aren't compatible with those players and Pep hasn't proven any other coaching methods yet whereas Mourinho could be successful with Bayern or Barca or any team as this is a proven fact. On the other hand if Mourinho took over Barca in 2008 he would have probably sold Xavi and Iniesta because they are too weak and built his midfield around Yaya Toure, Keita and Busquets and it would have probably been successful as well in a different way. Doubt it would have ever gone done as "the best team of all time" though as the beauty and total dominance would be non-existent. It would be more like his Real Madrid side but with Messi instead of Ronaldo where he'd actually win big titles. Minus the football purism.

i agree with this .

i also wonder where xavi could fit in mourinho's inter or chelsea ? he's not strong enough to play in front of the defense, not fast and athletic enough to play box to box and trigger explosive and fast counter attacks , not agile and slick enough to play behind the strikers....

well Mourinho has a different approach, in a way diametrally opposed.

Someone posted it somewhere and this was just it, Mourinho's sides speculate and are comfortable without the ball, and don't speculate with the ball - studied counter movements etc.

Pep is just the opposite, they like to retain possession and speculate with the ball circulating until an opportunity opens, yet without the ball they don't speculate instead go into immediate orchestrated pressing to win it back.

That's also why it's so tough when they meet, as each side's strength resonates with the other side's strength.

Now, people say Mourinho is negative and cowardly, but in a way you could say the exact opposite.
You could say it's fearless to let the opponent attack and trust in your defense. Or you could say Pep's sides are too cowardly to allow the opponent possession as well. It's a different kind of negative, one with much prettier combinations lol.

Pep himself said as much before tha Arsenal tie. He doesn't want them to have the ball so they can't 'hurt' us

As for results, they're both up there. Mourinho's been at it longer, so we know he can pull it off everywhere as Fußball says, however Pep's density of success is so far even higher.
It#s been instantaneous and all-conquering at Barca.

Disagree football. Great managers in their different ways. Michels is known as one of the greatest coaches of all time because of the philosophy imprinted at Ajax. Had minimal success with Barcelona. Still regarded as the finest coach of the 20th century. Guardiola has an idea but he needs great players to execute it. Mourinhos philosophy is more adaptable but he also needs specific players for it, but Gardiola needs higher quality because the football philsophy he wants is at a far higher level. Same thing with Saachi and same thing with Cruyff. Are they not great coaches any more because of what Pep has done. Equally as great but for different reasons.

jibers wrote:Disagree football. Great managers in their different ways. Michels is known as one of the greatest coaches of all time because of the philosophy imprinted at Ajax. Had minimal success with Barcelona. Still regarded as the finest coach of the 20th century. Guardiola has an idea but he needs great players to execute it. Mourinhos philosophy is more adaptable but he also needs specific players for it, but Gardiola needs higher quality because the football philsophy he wants is at a far higher level. Same thing with Saachi and same thing with Cruyff. Are they not great coaches any more because of what Pep has done. Equally as great but for different reasons.

Strange. Because I don't disagree with what you've written. Where do we disagree again?  

I think he refers to you saying Pep trumps Mou by far footballwise.
Probably if you go into detail you don't disagree anymore.

Fußball wrote:

jibers wrote:Disagree football. Great managers in their different ways. Michels is known as one of the greatest coaches of all time because of the philosophy imprinted at Ajax. Had minimal success with Barcelona. Still regarded as the finest coach of the 20th century. Guardiola has an idea but he needs great players to execute it. Mourinhos philosophy is more adaptable but he also needs specific players for it, but Gardiola needs higher quality because the football philsophy he wants is at a far higher level. Same thing with Saachi and same thing with Cruyff. Are they not great coaches any more because of what Pep has done. Equally as great but for different reasons.

Strange. Because I don't disagree with what you've written. Where do we disagree again?  

I wrote it out of habit and ^^^

Futbol

Hans

Hapless_Hans wrote:I think he refers to you saying Pep trumps Mou by far footballwise.

But I haven't written that. Unless I'm drunk. I'm sure I must have written "result-wise". Too lazy to recheck now.

Fußball wrote:

Just 2 big multi millionaire egos. In terms of football, which is the only thing I care about at the end of the day, Pep trumps Mourinho by far though.

lol it's jus a couple of posts above, how drunk are you.

Anyway you explained in the next post, and the reason I had the answer to your question ready was because me as well had as a first reaction to jibers post 'and where do you disagree with fussball now?' lol, had to go to your post before to get why.

Hapless_Hans wrote:

Anyway you explained in the next post, and the reason I had the answer to your question ready was because me as well had as a first reaction to jibers post 'and where do you disagree with fussball now?' lol, had to go to your post before to get why.

WTF?! Surely this is not proper English. I understand *bleep* all.

haha. Never mind man!

I guess I'm still drunk from celebrating our victory in der Meisterschaft.

lol I was there im Olympiastadion.

Had to work the next day though.

Hapless_Hans wrote:lol I was there im Olympiastadion.

Had to work the next day though.

What was the atmosphere like? Must have been weird seeing the football played in one half

Dat Munchen

jibers wrote:

Hapless_Hans wrote:lol I was there im Olympiastadion.

Had to work the next day though.

What was the atmosphere like? Must have been weird seeing the football played in one half

Dat Munchen

Exactly jibers it was really STRANGE.

First of all great timing, first Bayern game in the stadium for me in a while, nice of them to win the league away at Berlin

Second - it's much more strange than on TV. It's like a training game where they're only allowed to use one half.
21 players crowded along 30-40 meter of the pitch and Neuer standing 35 meters in front of his goal lol.

In a way it's not an actual 'game', as in only we matter, Hertha had no say in it in the first half.

Atmosphere was alright not spectacular, Olympiastadion is not the greatest place for atmosphere.
Our block was in a good mood though obviously.

Wish Pep would've come in front of the curve with the rest of them though.

I thing I've learned about managers is never listen to what they say.

Judge what they do during the game.