With their Champions League hopes left in ruins at the feet of Leo Messi, Bayern Munich lost to FC Augsburg yesterday under a cloud of rumour about head coach Pep Guardiola. The rumour started on BEIN Sports early yesterday when they reported Guardiola had a verbal agreement to join Manchester City in the summer for €22m a year.
Guardiola has long been linked with City given his close ties with ex Barcelona men Txiki Begiristain and Ferran Soriano. The rumour was shot down in its infancy by well respected German scribe Raphael Honigstein along with Guardiola biographer Guillem Balague:
It's a verbally signed pre-contract. Sounds legit to me
— Raphael Honigstein (@honigstein) May 9, 2015
Pure imagination and fiction this story that Guardiola has agreed to sign for City. Not true at all!!
— Guillem Balague (@GuillemBalague) May 9, 2015
In a further twist though former German international Didi Hamann claimed he had been told Guardiola had agreed to join City while appearing on German TV:
.@DietmarHamann (via @dusselpaddy ) on Sky DE: "Discussions advanced, nothing signed. In all prob, Pep will be at City next season"
— Gabriele Marcotti (@Marcotti) May 9, 2015
I hope it's good enough for all of us. https://t.co/e8KC25JbxW
— Didi Hamann (@DietmarHamann) May 10, 2015
And in one last twist, today's Sunday Times reports AC Milan want Pep to spearhead a revival.
A classic 'will he? won't he?' saga awaits us.
