Pep Guardiola will see out his contract at Bayern Munich, dismisses Manchester City links
Bayern Munich manager Pep Guardiola has come out and confirmed that he will remain in charge of the Bundesliga club next season. There were reports over the weekend that linked the Spanish boss to EPL giants Manchester City with Guardiola all set to take over from Manuel Pellegrini this summer after a trophyless season.
The fact that Manchester City’s director of football Txiki Begiristain and Chief Executive Officer Ferran Soriano have worked with Guardiola when he was at Barcelona added more fuel to the fire. Guardiola’s contract at Bayern expires only at the end of the 2016 season.
It was first reported that Guardiola had a verbal agreement to replace Pellegrini this summer.
I have one more year left on my contract: Guardiola
But Guardiola dismissed all reports and stated that he would see out his contract at Bayern Munich. He spoke about the reports in a press conference ahead of Bayern's Champions League semi-final second leg against Barcelona.
“I have said it 200 million times that my future lies at Sabener Strasse (Bayern Munich’s training ground).
“I have one more year left on my contract. I will be here next season.”
The reports had come at a wrong time when Bayern had lost four matches on the trot – the first time it has happened in almost 23 years. And Guardiola stated that he was not at Munich to be the best coach in the world but to give it his best.
Bayern Munich players are losing belief in Guardiola: Lothar Matthaus
Meanwhile, Bayern Munich legend Lothar Matthaus had stated that the players were slowly starting to lose faith in Guardiola this season.
He said: “Guardiola has already said that their season is over and he's been rotating his team so much that he's unsettling the team.
“His team no longer has the stability they had for over eight months, enchanting football fans up and down Germany.
“It seems the players are losing a bit of belief in the coach, and he hadn't expected that.”
Bayern Munich have already wrapped up the Bundesliga title but have to overturn a 3-0 deficit in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final against Barcelona to harbour any hopes of reaching the final in Berlin.