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Guardiola admits coveting manager’s job at Man United

MANCHESTER — Pep Guardiola has admitted a desire to add Manchester United to his managerial CV, a newly-released book reveals.

Guardiola (left) and Ferguson during a Champions League tie between Barcelona and United on 
May 28, 2011. 
The Spaniard 
has always felt a deep admiration for the legendary teams and players of Europe. 
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

Guardiola (left) and Ferguson during a Champions League tie between Barcelona and United on
May 28, 2011.
The Spaniard
has always felt a deep admiration for the legendary teams and players of Europe.
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

MANCHESTER — Pep Guardiola has admitted a desire to add Manchester United to his managerial CV, a newly-released book reveals.

The former Barcelona coach, recruited by Bayern before Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement as United manager at the end of the 2012-13 season, is under contract in Germany until the end of the 2015-16 campaign.

Despite his commitment to the Bundesliga champions, the 43-year-old remains one of the hottest properties in world football who, according to Spanish journalist Marti Perarnau in his book, Pep Confidential: The Inside Story of Pep Guardiola’s First Season at Bayern Munich, was a target for Chelsea, Manchester City and AC Milan before he agreed to take over at Bayern.

Having given Perarnau open-door access and full cooperation during the year-long project of writing the diary of his first campaign at Bayern, Guardiola’s admission of being seduced by the prospect of managing United is unlikely to go unnoticed by senior figures at Old Trafford, who were frustrated by his unavailability in the wake of David Moyes’ sacking as manager last April.

“From the start, Pep was well disposed to the overtures from the Bavarian club,” Perarnau writes.

“He liked the set-up at Sabener Strasse (Bayern’s training complex), despite the fact that it was smaller than Barca’s training ground and had fewer technical facilities.

“The day after beating Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final, Guardiola and Manel Estiarte (his personal assistant) travelled to Manchester to watch their next opponents in Champions League action.

“It was May 4, 2011, and the pair sat together in the stands of Old Trafford watching Ferguson’s team beat Schalke 4-1. Pep turned to Estiarte, privately saying: ‘I like this atmosphere. I could see myself coaching here one day.’ A student of the game, Guardiola has always felt a deep admiration, almost veneration, for the legendary teams and players of Europe.”

The Spaniard is understood to have met Ferguson twice in New York during the first half of the 2012-13 campaign, when the former Barcelona coach was midway through his sabbatical in the city following his resignation at the Camp Nou at the end of the previous campaign.

It is not known whether Ferguson disclosed his plans to retire at the end of that season to Guardiola, or if the Scot offered Guardiola the opportunity to succeed him, but any hope of that happening disappeared when Bayern confirmed, in January 2013, that he would become their manager from the start of the next season.

The book also claims Bayern fended off several heavyweight rivals from around Europe to secure Guardiola as coach.

“His ex-colleague, Txiki Begiristain, the director of football at Manchester City, was very insistent. He also met up in Paris with Roman Abramovich, who was prepared to do anything to lure Pep to Chelsea.”

When asked about the prospect of managing United last season following the sacking of Moyes in April, Guardiola pledged his loyalty to Bayern before admitting his future plans were yet to be resolved.

“I am here. I am at Bayern and I want to stay for two more years here,” he said in April. “We won the Bundesliga, but I feel our team can improve. I am comfortable here. I work with very kind people here and I want to stay, but after that, I don’t know what will happen.” THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

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