Guardiola to be named new Barca coach
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Former club captain Pep Guardiola will replace Frank Rijkaard as Barcelona coach at the end of the season, Spanish media reported on Tuesday.
Newspapers said that Barcelona's delegate commission, which includes club president Joan Laporta and sporting director Txiki Begiristain, had met on Monday and recommended that Guardiola should replace Rijkaard as first team coach.
Barcelona-based daily Sport said the decision would be ratified by the rest of the board and made official at the end of the season. The club has said it will not comment on possible changes until the season is over.
Rijkaard, whose contract runs to 2009, has denied reports he will step down as coach in the wake of the team's failure to win any silverware over the past two seasons. Local-born Guardiola made his name at Barcelona as a cultured midfielder in the early 1990s when Johan Cruyff was manager.
He quickly established himself as a favourite at the Nou Camp and became one of the key players in Cruyff's so-called "Dream team" which won four consecutive league titles between 1991 and 1994 and the European Cup in 1992.
He was part of the Spain side that won the gold medal in the Barcelona Olympics and won 47 caps for the senior national team. Guardiola left Barcelona in 2001 to join Serie A side Brescia but his career in Italy was disrupted when he tested positive for nandrolone in November 2001.
He served a four-month ban but strenuously denied any offence and went through the courts to clear his name, finally winning his case in October last year. After spells in Qatar and Mexico, Guardiola announced his retirement as a player in Nov. 2006. He was appointed coach of Barcelona's B side last June.
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Hmm... Looks like Barce won't be going with Mourinho after all... wise choice...
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'Special one' snubbed by Barcelona'
The "special one" is not the chosen one. Barcelona have decided not to appoint Jose Mourinho as their first-team coach for next season despite him being the overwhelming choice of the club's supporters.
The club's "delegate commission" – in effect, its board of directors – has provisionally agreed to give Frank Rijkaard's job to current reserve team coach and former player Pep Guardiola at the end of the season despite the fact that the 37-year-old only has one year's coaching experience.
The decision, yet to be officially confirmed by the club, will move Mourinho increasingly closer to Serie A where Internazionale now look like becoming his next destination.
The former Chelsea manager wanted the Barcelona job and the people wanted Mourinho but ultimately there were certain barriers that could not be overcome. In the middle of Chelsea's epic battles with Barcelona under Mourinho, he famously said he did not need to learn how to lose a Champions League final 4-0 – referring to the final Johan Cruyff's Barcelona side lost to Milan in 1994.
Now Guardiola, the captain of Cruyff's so-called dream team from that era is the man who replaces Rijkaard, and not Mourinho. Mourniho did have his supporters at the Nou Camp and Sporting Director Txiki Begiristain is understood to have met with him in January. But certain conditions that might have helped the pro-Mourinho camp persuade the doubters were not met. It is rumoured that working as part of a team with a young in-house coach, possibly Guardiola, was rejected by Mourinho who saw a move to pick his coaching staff for him as undermining his authority before he had even started.
For the outgoing Rijkaard there will be no shortage of suitors with one of his former clubs, Milan, a possible option. In an exclusive interview with The Independent two weeks ago he did not rule out linking up with his old Ajax pal Frank Arnesen and his former Barça second-in-command Henk Ten Cate at Chelsea.
Rijkaard first has the small matter of a clasico with Real Madrid to deal with. It is a must-win match for a side in danger of missing out on automatic qualification for the Champions League group stage.
The match will see Thierry Henry return to the Santiago Bernabeu, where he scored one of the goals of the season in 2006 to help Arsenal knock Real Madrid out of that competition.
This time he will be part of a guard of honour as tradition forces Barcelona to salute the newly-crowned Champions as they take to the pitch.
Recalling that famous goal two years ago, he said: "I have a good memory from that game but it was in another team, in another match and in another competition. Let's see if I can repeat it."
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I prefer Jose Mourinho not go anywhere because he will take Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba away from Chelsea and with him to the club he manages. :D
Chelsea fan here, sorry.
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I am beginning to think Chelsea don't want to keep Lampard anymore... They have not even offer him a new contract when he has been asking for it with 1 yr left on his current deal by the end of this season... On the other hand, Ballack with another 2 yrs left to his is offered a re-new to his current deal...
I belief Chelsea feel Lampard is dispensable but not Ballack with the current form he has been showing... Drogba well... he is already destine to leave thats why they have already line up so many names as his replacement...