Reports on Friday suggested that Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola could be under consideration for a return to former club Barcelona.
Current boss Luis Enrique has come under immense pressure this week after his side’s 4-0 humbling defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League.
Despite winning two La Liga titles and Europe’s premier competition since taking over, the problems have been piling up for the Spaniard with his contract set to come to an end this summer.
With Barca struggling on and off the pitch under his management by all accounts, it looks as though a change could be made at the end of the season. However, Guardiola has ruled himself out of the running and insisted that he has full faith in Barca to recover as they are still the best team in the world.
“There’s a lot of competition, the opposition are so strong. You can win heavily or you can lose heavily, that can happen, it’s happened to me, but there are 90 minutes to go and anything can happen,” he is quoted as saying by Sky Sports.
“I will never go back to Barcelona to be coach there. My period there is gone.
“Barcelona are still the best team in the world. It’s always a surprise because they are so, so good, but in football anything can happen.”
While the more immediate focus will naturally be ending the season in positive fashion, it won’t be long before it switches back to where Barca go next.
As noted by The Sun, the rumour regarding Guardiola’s possible return stemmed from the fact that Lionel Messi reportedly wants him back in Spain, with calls allegedly being made to try and convince him to return to the Nou Camp.
However, with his project at City only just starting, the Spanish tactician has other things to be concerned about and has now ruled out the chance of ever having a second spell with the Catalan giants.