The People vs Pep Guardiola
Tuesday 06 May 2008 12:56
If you are to believe the multiple Pulitzer prize-winning papers in Catalunya, Pep Guardiola is about to become the luckiest puppy in the world.
That's because the former Al-Ahli Doha and Dorados de Sinaloa legend is set to have his life completely ruined on June 30 when he takes over Frankie Rijkaard's ragged reins at the Camp Nou. (News: Guardiola set to be new Barcelona coach)
Both Barcelona papers are reporting that during a managerial-themed meeting on Monday, Txiki Beguiristain presented his 'Guardiola' report and persuaded the Barça bosses that Pep's perky 11-month spell running Barcelona 'B' makes him the perfect choice to lead the club into a bright new future – that and the fact that he's cheap and will be as obedient as a confidence-lacking Labrador.
Despite having been in charge of the Camp Nou's second team for less than a year, Guardiola has been making world-shattering waves with the performances of his players in the third division, section five of the Spanish league – a league they are currently sitting top of. And all achieved with just the greatest youth scheme on the planet at his disposal.
This makes him the perfect choice for one of the most high-pressured positions in the game say Barca's bosses whose board are set to ratify the decision on Thursday, according to Mundo Deportivo.
However, if you believe the polls in the papers, the culé masses disagree. A mighty 67% of a 20,692 total in Mundo Deportivo say that it is the wrong move. That reaction is mirrored in Sport where an on-line poll shows 69% are of the opinion that the appointment of Pep is a bad plan.
And that total could be even higher if you discount the paper's staff, friends and family jabbing away on the 'yes' button till their fingers turn blue.
This has left the columnists of the two Catalan papers in a bit of a quandary and caught between the need to kiss up to the Kingdom of Cataluyna and the pull of the last 1% of their journalistic integrity left. (La Liga Loca never had any in the first place and so never had such issues.)
Josep Maria Casanova comes dangerously close to heresy by writing that: "It's a brave, risky decision which goes against established logic and is based more on the confidence in the talent that Guardiola has shown than his demonstrated experience."
Over in Mundo Deportivo world, Santi Nolla opines that "it's a brave bet", but that Jose Mourinho was the most popular choice among fans but was discarded as a managerial option along with Michael Laudrup and Manuel Pellegrini.
His colleague, Oriol Domenech will not hear of such dastardly dissent and warns that "It's a delicate moment and that his support should be unconditional", thus happily denying the concept of free will to Barça fans.