Guardiola Barcelona coach till 2011
Guardiola will stay for another season
FC Barcelona announced that Pep Guardiola will continue as first team manager next season. He will sign a new contract at the end of the season once the new President of FC Barcelona has been elected.
After several days of rumors and counter rumours, FC Barcelona has confirmed that Josep Guardiola will be continuing as first team manager next season. The clamour of support for the young Catalan manager – from the Club offices, from the fans and from Facebook – was unanimous.
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday morning, Club president Joan Laporta and technical secretary Txiki Begiristain, together with Josep Guardiola himself, confirmed that Guardiola would remain in charge of the team next season.
The new contract will not be signed until the end of the current season with the new President installed at the club. For the moment, Josep Guardiola has expressed his desire to stay for at least another season as first team coach, giving his word to the club on the matter.
Guardiola led Barcelona to an unprecedented six major trophies in one year after replacing Frank Rijkaard at the start of the 2008-09 season, winning the Champions League, Spanish league, Copa del Rey, European and Spanish Supercups and the Club World Cup.
Guardiola said he liked to think his contract was being renewed not because of what he had won so far but for what he intended to achieve with the club in the future.
“Sooner or later I know I will have to stop being coach of FC Barcelona and I know that I’m not going to be better off anywhere else,” he said.
Laporta said the club aimed to keep Guardiola for many more seasons but Guardiola said he preferred to sign short-term contracts.
“I believe you should for sign for short periods in which, as coach, you have to win things, win the players, win the fans,” he said.
Although the agreement ties him to the club for the short-term, Guardiola’s long-term future will remain open to speculation with Manchester United reportedly considering the Santpedor-native to replace Alex Ferguson once the manager steps down.
Guardiola said he put off contract talks to stay motivated, but recent public clamor appeared to have helped progress the deal, with Laporta having initially given him until Easter to make a decision.
Guardiola became only the sixth man to win Europe’s top competition as a player (1992) and coach when Barcelona beat Ferguson’s Manchester United 2-0 in the Champions League final in Rome last May.
