Guardiola told a packed press conference on Wednesday morning why he had decided to extend his contract for another year and why it had been announced at this particular moment.
At 11 am Josep Guardiola appeared on the training grounds and two and a half hours later he was
back in the Camp Nou, together with Joan Laporta and Txiki Begiristain, to announce that he was
extending his deal for another year.
An uncomfortable situation
Sincere as always, Guardiola confirmed that he would have preferred to
wait until the end of the season but that he had changed his mind after the team was eliminated
from the Spanish Cup: “It makes the weeks seem longer”. This circumstance, more than
the fact of it being an election year, had generated, “a situation that was already
uncomfortable for everyone – we had to kill off the matter”.
Nowhere better than Barça
Guardiola came up through the Barça youth ranks, starred in the first
team and has now managed the reserves and the first team. As such he knows that, “I
couldn’t be better anywhere else”. “I feel strong enough to carry on. I
don’t want to be here for what we’ve done but for what we must do now”.
He thanked people for their support but emphasized: “Sooner or later I’ll stop
being the manager of Barça. We know that anything can happen in four months. What can seem obvious
now might not be in four months’ time”.
Club elections
Guardiola has already made it clear that the players will not be
affected by the election process for the Club presidency that is expected to begin very soon. And
he stressed that he had no worries about his own contractual position when the new president takes
charge: “We’ll talk about the new contract with calm. It’ll be good for the new
president to know me and find out what we both think”.
To view this content you need the latest version of the Flash Player
Delighted to work with Txiki
Although Josep Guardiola will definitely be here next season, the position of technical secretary
Txiki Begiristain is still unclear. However, Guardiola was adamant when asked if he would like to
carry on working with Txiki: “”Yes, very much so”.