Have Arsenal dodged a MASSIVE Pep shaped bullet?

Arsenal have for some time been linked with the former Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola, especially during the dark days when a big slice of the Arsenal support was sick and tired of Arsene Wenger and blamed the Frenchman for the club´s struggles in the transfer market and on the football pitch.

Now, however, we are generally better disposed towards Le Prof, as he has started to make big signings and the team has shown great improvement. A first major trophy in nine years has certainly not done the boss any harm either. But there are still regular Arsenal transfer rumours that suggest the Spaniard could be the man to take over the hot seat when Wenger does relinquish it.

But after a pretty pathetic attempt to retain the Premier League title and improve on their poor Champions League record, it looks like Man City will be saying goodbye to Manuel Pellegrini and a Metro report claims that Guardiola has agreed to take over. If this is true it will upset some Gooners but I think we may have dodged a bullet.

If you did not see Pep´s former club Barcelona beat his current club Bayern Munich this week then you might not understand why, but the game highlighted the Spaniard´s stubborn refusal to alter his possession based style of play and they paid a big price. Wenger was like that as well but is now willing to change his tactics when it is needed. Do we really want to go back to the days of tippy tappy football that looks nice but does not get results?

Let Man City have him I say. What do you think?

Tags Guardiola Man City Wenger

25 Comments

  1. Look, If Pep does go to City (I doubt it) it will make it difficult for us. Because with new TV deal, Man City might be able to dodge the FFP. So with spending power + Pep with his player pulling power, not great news. Hope Arsenal does well in terms of players, strategies etc. Thats all I care for now. Time to compete for honours again.

      1. Oh noooo…..you my friend are a detriment. This entire article has to be a satirical piece? Same with your comment.

        Are people actually suggesting Pep Guardiola is ‘not all that’ as a manager? Please find the nearest wall and repeatedly bash your head off it, what a ridiculous thing to come out with. He MADE the best Barca team in history, and this Bayern team has obliterated Germany setting records along the way. Now people are claiming he’s pony because his team got sucker punched by Barca?

        Do me a favour.

  2. Not worried about “pep” all! i want us to do is make a serious challenge towards winning the title next season! Coyg!

  3. Some1 just said pep can’t build a team, he built this present barca team by disposing the likes of dinho, deco and odas and he built his own team majorly from their B team and some reserve players…he knew wot he wanted to do and he did exactly dat…and so they won the treble dat season…

    Munich team is ageing and injury is setting in…yet his team is in championsl league semi final

    All I knw is, if he goes to city…he will be provided wif wot he needs and he will challenge for several tittles….but that doesn’t mean ma darling arsenal won’t win the title next season

    1. Its a difficult one.

      Before he moved to Bayern i was thinking along the lines of if like Wenger he would maybe strive if inherited a defence similar to our famous five. Seeing how poorly Bayern defend these days especially considering the defensive set up when arrived and also the fact that its Germanys no1 team.. (they have the pick of the country and not just any country – Germany) .. i would have huge reservations.

      My preferred choice would be De Boer. Looks a very good manager in the making and a man who has been around played against aswell as with every type of talent there is. Even now he surrounds himself with some of the best football minds of today. I would keenly look forward to him bringing along his Ajax staff and ex Arsenal players.

  4. ive never been his biggest fan.

    with greatest respect give neil warnock… messi xavi iniesta an eto in there prime-
    that squad was insane david villa at his peak pique, list goes on.

    compare bayern now to bayern with jupp heynckes couple years back

    hes living off that amazing barca team. city can have him

  5. Interesting article.

    I actually think it’s very hard to tell if Pep is a great coach or not. He’s won every trophy going, and over a short period of time, which is obviously very impressive. But if you look at it in context, it’s a different story.

    He inherited a fantastic side at Barcelona, he had Messi at his disposal (who will probably go down as the greatest player ever, and guarantee’s you a goal a game), Pep also had a lot of other world class players that were so in tune which each others game, he had lots of money to spend, and Real and Barcelona were miles ahead of any else in the Spanish league in terms of quality players and finances.

    He’s now at Bayern, where his job is arguably even easier. At least Real could put up a challenge, whereas Bayern are just so far ahead of any other team in Germany.

    But what is very interesting, is Bayern’s performances in Europe under Pep. You would expect them to get to at least the QF or SF with the squad they have, and they have done just that. But Bayern have been torn apart by two top teams last year and this year in the semis.

    Pep is good coach, but goals win games, and when you have a player like Messi scoring 50/60 goals a season or more, then you’ll easily win most of your games, even if you’re not that great a coach.

    I still wouldn’t say no to Pep, but for me, the best coach in Europe of the last few years is Diego Simeone. He’s had hardly any money to spend, doesn’t have a whole lot of world class players, and look what he’s achieved.

  6. wenger is one of the best in he world. look what happened to klopp and pepp with a couple of injuries… wenger is better than a lot of ppl give him credit for. also keeping us up while we couldnt compete financially. true class, he could manage a bunch of school boys and come 4th

  7. My question is would have arsenal won that barca game?no,if you know shakira,messi,pedro,besquit that were on the b-team you would not say this sh*t.i love wenger and his best replacement is pep

  8. I’m not worried which manager comes to man city next season, if pep does I feel sorry for him. After few seasons he will be out for sure. The only team I’m worried about is chelshit. Mourhino is a tactic master to be honest. If we can beat Chelshit in any matches then we can win the league next season. I don’t want Mourhino to be like ferguson, dominate the league.

  9. there is only one thing that worries me is the lack of top class potential managers coming through to replace wenger in a few years, pep might be ok (but he does cause upset at most of the clubs he manages) klopp on the other hand is too soon to take over would work but wenger wont go as he is just on the up again.
    maybe de boer might be another option, my personal idea would be thomas tuchel he seems to be outside option and could be a star in time for wenger retirement, but am guessing it will be an inside job with henry coming through the ranks, but we will see i dont want to see us left with the rubbish options leftovers like martinez and the like.

  10. Wow, Bob is surely the most biased author ive ever seen write something about Arsenal. You make me ashamed to be supporting Arsenal.

    1. Why do you call him biased for this story? Is he upsetting you because he thinks Wenger is better than Pep? Come on, tell us your reasons for saying that instead of just slagging off Bob……

      1. Anyone who takes note of the author / publisher of the ridiculous articles written sees that Bob makes up a very good portion of them. His unlimited praising of Wenger for the slightest positive act he does and the lack of insight when judging other managers is just shambolic for other gooners. Thank goodness this is a site made by, for and used by Arsenal fans only.

        His endless articles about Wenger being the better manager vs mourinho, despite the fact that ever since Mourinho was relevant for Wenger, he’s been the better manager by stats. Now the same thing comes with Pep? By all means, I’m no fan of Pep, but just like with Mourinho, I have no problem stating the obvious – They are world class managers bringing trophies to their clubs. You might say well what about Bayerns form since they won the Bundesliga? Have you looked at their injury list? It is for me an impressive act to tie Barcelona for 78 minutes with that squad he had. As for the domestic cup vs Dortmund, I watched that and I like Dortmund – but Bayern deserved to win that one all day long.

        Bob likes Wenger, hates Mourinho and still thinks Wenger is the same mastermind he was 15 years ago – fine. I like Wenger too, but unlike Bob, I don’t praise him like I did one week post-03/04 season.

        1. As for your question “Is he upsetting me because he thinks Wenger is better than Pep?”. I dont get upset, i just shake my head in disbelief how people can be so desillusioned. As far as I know, he’s the only manager in modern day football to have won the sextuple.

          And just for the record – I dont want Mourinho nor Pep to become the new manager after Arsene retires.

        2. Look how bias and contradictory you are. You say “It is for me an impressive act to tie Barcelona for 78 minutes with that squad he had” but when they lose to a completely and undeniably inferior Dortmund side your argument is they deserved to win? What kind of bull sh*t is that just shows you have an agenda to talk up pep no matter what.

          You clearly are the delusional one on this website what has given you the notion that pep is a world class manager? I mean seriously do you have any idea the barca team that he had at his disposal there’s talk about that team being the best club team in HISTORY. Not only that he had arguably the greatest player in HISTORY. It’s clear as day he’s no where near as good as you and other people think look at his results in Europe the past 2 seasons since he doesn’t have the greatest team in club history. He won the bundesliga this year that’s it me and you could’ve wrapped that championship up since bayern are so far ahead of every other team. Stop looking at the surface and just use your brain

  11. de boer would be perfect replacement for wenger he looks a very good manager at ajax who play similarly to how we play
    he’d also bring bergkamp with him which would be a massive plus in the dressing room and around the team would be perfect

  12. Probably the most delusional set of comments I ‘ve read since the remnants of the 4th reich continued to plan for their takeover of Western Europe from the Berlin bunker in January 1945

  13. Pep is a great manager. People start calling him crap because he got beat by messi. We all know how that feels. Bayern have crazy injuries and were good for most of their barca game. I would not mind him replacing our Wenger when the time comes.

  14. whomever takes over from arsene is gon be class….. I mean, we’re the Arsenal, err thing we do is a class act!

  15. I’m waiting for shouts for Enrique or Allegri on here! All the manager fav-ravs are showing fallibilities. The chances are we will never know how great the likes of Pep and Mou really are. It really makes me laugh when the gurning media sycophants try really hard to make excuses for the likes of Pep G. 5-0 against RM last year and the possibility of the same sort of score line this year versus Barca – “but he was without 4 players…etc” – when did you last hear that for us? Both have cherry picked low-risk options – Porto, Inter, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern are short-odds for their respective league title every year – more especially at the times Mou or Pep took over. The biggest pending spree seen in the modern era in 2003-6 at Chelsea overshadowed the successes. RA appears to be the consistent winning theme at Chelsea, they have won titles, FA cups, league cups, UCL and EL cups with 5 different managers (Mourinho, Di Matteo, Ancelotti, Hiddink, Benitez) – even Avram Grant was a John Terry “slip on his arse away” from the Champions League trophy.

    At least the likes of Wenger and Ferguson can point to some impressive coaching/management at relatively unfashionable teams before they cut their teeth in the PL. SAF at Aberdeen was immense and cup and league titles at Monaco after some years in the wilderness and a cup and highest ever league position for Nagoya Grampus just as impressive.

    1. I honestly think the world is brain dead. Read what I said to the guy seventiti further up the page and tell me if you agree

Comments are closed

Top Blog Sponsors