Reuters Soccer Blog

Is Guardiola the man to tame Robinho?

“Of course I would like to play for Barca, who wouldn’t? We could have a lot of fun. It would be a pleasure to play with Messi, with my colleague Alves, with Xavi, Iniesta, Ibrahimovic, with all of them. They are a brilliant team.

“I have played against them and I know their quality. But at the moment I can only do it on my Playstation.”

Manchester City’s gifted but controversial Brazilian forward Robinho was thus quoted in Barcelona-based newspaper El Mundo Deportivo on Thursday.

According to the paper and its fellow Catalan sheet Sport, Robinho could join Pep Guardiola’s European champions on loan in January and has asked City for permission to leave.

Sport reported on Tuesday the deal would cost Barca 3.2 million euros ($4.8 million) and they would assume the payment of his current annual salary of 6.2 million.

A transfer had also been mooted, according to Sport, that would see Barca pay City 35 million euros and Robinho agree a contract through 2014.

Robinho, full name Robson de Souza, told El Mundo Deportivo he knew nothing about a possible deal.

Do Juventus or Milan have the next Guardiola?

There is nothing new about putting expensively assembled football teams into the hands of former players with glorious on-field pasts and little coaching experience. But I think it’s fair to say that Pep Guardiola’s remarkable success in his maiden season in the Barcelona dugout contributed to AC Milan and Juventus recently appointing novice managers Leonardo and Ciro Ferrara.

Juve’s Italy defender Nicola Legrottaglie said he sees Ferrara as “the Italian response to Guardiola”. Milan chief executive Adriano Galliani, meanwhile, preferred to compare Leonardo to the precedent they set with Fabio Capello, who like the Brazilian was a club director before his 1991-96 stint in charge that produced four Serie A titles and a Champions League.

Leonardo’s apparent weakness is that he is absolutely new to coaching. Guardiola had been successful with Barcelona B before he got the first-team job at the Camp Nou. Ferrara can count on his experience at the helm of Juve’s youth team and at Marcello Lippi’s side in the Italy coaching staff, as well as the two matches he won in Serie A to clinch automatic Champions League qualification after Claudio Ranieri was sacked.

Ferrara’s challenge may be how to stamp his authority in the locker room. He now finds himself in charge of the team’s so-called senators, such as Alessandro Del Piero, Mauro Camoranesi and David Trezeguet, after playing alongside them before retiring in 2005. This could complicate matters if he wants to drop one of his old team mates. But if he is seen to favour them it could create rifts.

It might be easier for Leonardo to be the tough guy when necessary as, although he is younger than Ferrara, his playing days are further behind him.

Lippi, however, is confident Ferrara has what it takes to overcome these hurdles: “He has the charisma, personality, intelligence, wisdom and charm to establish a relationship with top level professionals and construct something important with them.”

Guardiola has come a long way in 18 years

Eighteen years ago today, on Dec. 16 1990, a 19-year-old midfielder made his debut for Johan Cruyff’s Barcelona dream team in a Primera Liga match against Cadiz.

Pep Guardiola, who picked up a yellow card that day as the Catalans won 2-0, has come a long way since then, carving out a distinguished career both for Barca and the Spanish national side before taking over as coach at the Nou Camp from Frank Rijkaard at the end of last season.

The dapper Guardiola, who cuts a reserved yet assured figure, immediately stamped his mark on the squad, junking the under-performing Ronaldinho and the unwanted Deco, and bringing in the dynamic Daniel Alves and midfield pair Aleksandr Hleb and Seydou Keita.

He has restored the discipline, professionalism and team spirit to the club and the results are there for all to see: a lead of eight points at the top of the table, 46 goals in 15 matches with only nine conceded and, best of all, a 12-point advantage over champions Real Madrid.

In their last three league matches, Barca have dismissed three of their closest rivals with uncanny ease — 3-0 at Sevilla, 4-0 at home to Valencia and 2-0 in Saturday’s “Clasico” at the Nou Camp against Real Madrid.

This without the creative midfield talents of Spain international Andres Iniesta, who has been out for six weeks with a thigh strain but may return as soon as Sunday’s match at Villarreal.

Friday afternoon question: Is Guardiola the man to revive Barcelona?

After a second consecutive season without any silverware — and a humiliating 4-1 drubbing by arch-rivals by Real Madrid into the bargain – Barcelona have tried to stem the rising tide of criticism of the club by announcing that former club captain Pep Guardiola is to take charge of the team at the end of the season.

It’s quite a gamble.

Over the past two seasons, Jose Mourinho, Arsene Wenger, Marco van Basten, Juande Ramos and Ernesto Valverde have all been mentioned as possible replacements for Rijkaard, but the club have rejected the tried and tested contenders and gone for old boy Guardiola, whose coaching experience amounts to nothing more than a single season in charge of the club’s reserve team Barça B.

Given his Catalan credentials and close association with Johan Cruyff’s “dream team”, the appointment of Guardiola will be welcomed by some of the Nou Camp faithful, but he is hardly the sort of figure you would expect to take charge of a big team like Barça when they’re going through a Galactico-style meltdown.

Guardiola’s appointment could be a sign that Barça now realise their attempt to pack the team with big-name players was a foolish one and that they may now try to recruit more low profile figures to replace the likes of Ronaldinho.

But it is a risky strategy to ask a coach as inexperienced as Guardiola to try and pick up the pieces, construct a new side and deliver success in his first season in the big time.

Real Madrid tried a similar approach with coaches like Mariano Garcia Remon and Juan Ramon Lopez Caro, but both ended up being turfed out as they struggled to deal with the pressure and expectation. In the end it took the experienced Fabio Capello to get the team back on their feet.