Pep Guardiola will spark a fresh scramble to secure his services among Premier League clubs after a close confidante reveals that he expects his next job to be in England.
Guardiola is under contract at Bayern Munich until 2016 but a new book on his life at the German club reveals he is planning a short, intense career at various club and that England is his preferred next destination.
Manchester City would be favourites to recruit Guardiola, given his friendship with Txiki Begiristain, his former Barca team-mate, who is now Director of Football at City and held that role at Bareclona when Guadiola was coach.
But Pep's preference for England will put Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gatzidis on alert, given the contortions Arsenal went through last season waiting for Arsene Wenger to renew his contract. Wenger, aged 65, signed a three-year deal only at the end of the season but the need to plan for a succession was a prominent theme of last week's Annual General Meeting at the club.
Journalist Marti Perarnau had year-round access to Guardiola in the authorised book of his first season at Bayern, Pep Confidential, and wrote: 'Guardiola says: 'I'm a Barça man and always will be.' This doesn't mean, however, that he'll ever be back training Barcelona. In fact, if I were a betting man, I'd say that his future is going to be Bayern and then England.
'Who knows? He may end up in eight-to-ten years taking a curtain call by coaching a national team. He isn't planning a very long career and the family agreement seems to be just that: a limited but intense career span.
'What he would really love to do is manage the youth programme – train young players, oversee their development, teach them the fundamentals and get everything he can out of them. Perhaps he'll do it one day, although it certainly won't happen any time soon. He has three years in Munich and, if he doesn't extend his contract, possibly a stint in England.'
Begiristain came close to persuading his former colleague to joing City in 2012 whilst Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich was desperate to appoint Guardiola, before Guardiola eventually opted for Bayern.
Another close friend, Mallorca coach Miquel Soler, also expects Guardiola to leave Bayern in 2016 and come to the Premier League.
'Will Pep be able to keep this up for more than three years?' said Soler. 'I really doubt it. The guy uses up so much energy. He lives everything at 1000 miles an hour. I think the same thing will happen here as happened in Barça. He'll be exhausted after three or four years and he'll have to take another break. Then he'll be off to England and more of the same.'
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