Guardiola Named New Barça Boss
FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta has confirmed that Josep 'Pep' Guardiola is to be the new first team coach at Camp Nou, with Frank Rijkaard set to leave the club...
FC Barcelona released a brief, official statement within the last hour to the effect that Frank Rijkaard would part company with the club at the end of the season, with current reserve team coach Pep Guardiola set to take his place.
The club's official website reported:
"[President] Joan Laporta has announced that Frank Rijkaard will end his career at the club at the end of this current 2007/08 season. Josep Buardiola, current coach of Barça B, has been picked as his replacement on the bench of FC Barcelona.
"After a meeting of the Board of Directors, the president Joan Laporta appeared before the media to announce the takeover on the bench of the first team of FC Barcelona at the end of the season. On June 30, Frank Rijkaard will no longer be coach of FC Barcelona and Josep Guardiola will be his replacement."
As such, Rijkaard has just two more games in charge before he leaves Camp Nou for the last time.
The Announcement
Laporta's declaration was later published, with the president stating that the current 'cycle' had come to an end and that, despite Rijkaard's past successes, it's time for a new approach.
Offering some parting compliments, he said of Frank, "He has done an excellent job and has had an excellent performance. We will remember Frank Rijkaard as the man that led the team to recovery and in three years took them to glory in Paris [in the Champions League].
"He had an exceptional balance of trophies that must not be obscured by the results of the last two seasons. One can conclude that Frank Rijkaard makes history."
However, the president contended that "[Frank] has completed a cycle and the results are not with him now. Despite attempts, the mistakes detected last season were not corrected."
As for the parting, he said that Frank accepted the news with dignity when informed after morning training.
"He has been very gracious, and it was a very emotional time," said Laporta. "I find it hard to say anything bad of him."
Looking Ahead
Offering his thoughts on Guardiola's appointment, the chief continued, "We believe in Guardiola to lead the need sporting project. This will ensure the continuity of the renewed football ideology that has led us to success.
"He has the knowledge, enthusiasm, self-confidence, and respect of the club needed."
Adding that it was a "unanimous" decision from the board to appoint the Barça B coach, Laporta went on to add a bit of personal reflection to proceedings.
"I am also responsible," he said. "Surely not all our decisions were sound. Some of our ideas have not worked. And the playres have not responded to the expectations that we and the coach had... we had planned one of the best squads in the world."
Open Secret
It's been something of an open secret that the Dutchman's days were numbered as he steered Barça to a second successive season without any trophies, but Wednesday night's shocking 4-1 loss to arch-rivals Real Madrid seems to have sealed the deal.
Rijkaard arrived in Catalunya in 2003, taking the blaugrana to second place in his debut season and to two successive Liga titles after that. What's more, in 2006 he completed the historic League and European Cup double with a famous win over Arsenal.
However, things began to sour last season as the blaugrana slipped away from a dominant position at the top of the table to help Real Madrid seize the title, and this year there was not even a meaningful battle as the Bernabéu side twice beat the blaugrana. Currently, Barça sit a massive 17 points behind their eternal enemies. Additionally, they can no longer finish second, meaning that they must pre-qualify for next season's Champions League.
Thus despite bright beginnings for the former Dutch international, his position at Camp Nou had clearly become untenable. This has been known essentially since Barcelona dropped out of the title race, but was only really solidified over the last week, during which time an aide of Frank's accidentally spilled the beans on a personal blog.
The club kept silent about this revelation, but today, after the Board meeting, decided to confirm what was already known.
Guardiola's The Man
Just as Rijkaard's departure was expected, so too was 'Pep' Guardiola's coronation as new boss. The heir apparent has around a year of coaching experience to his name, having taken over at FC Barcelona 'B' in time for the 2007-08 season.
The former Spanish international midfielder has steered the second string to first place in the Tercera División Grupo 5 - part of the fourth tier of Spanish football - where they look likely to make an immediate return to the Segunda B.
In recent weeks Pep has been charged with the task of submitting a report on his coaching style to the board and has also been rumoured to have provided the directors with a list of players that he wishes to keep, as well as those whom he'd sooner discard.
Apparently he has done enough to convince the top brass that he has what it takes, and in doing so has beaten off competition from the likes of Michael Laudrup, the Getafe manager.
Whether or not Pep will be involved with first team duties between now and the end of the campaign remains to be seen, as is whether or not Rijkaard opts to leave his post prior to the official handover date of June 30, which coincides with the time of most contractual renewals and conclusions.
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