Pep's grudge? How Guardiola ruined SEVERAL Barcelona transfers

Tom Weber

• 30 May 2023 16:57 BST
• 3 min read

Ex-Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola has turned into his former club's worst nightmare.

The Spaniard has come back to haunt his erstwhile employers on several occasions, and now even his former player Xavi has hinted at what could almost be described as a grudge.

Spanish outlet Fichajes has previously reported that it was Guardiola who blocked Joao Cancelo's January move to Barcelona, with the full-back eventually ending up at Bayern. Blaugrana head coach Xavi has now confirmed to TV3 that "Man City discussed [the offer] internally and then told us they did not want to allow Joao to join Barcelona."

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This was not the first time that something like this has happened either.

Sterling and Gundogan

Fichajes writes: "The...culé club had a deal for him [Cancelo] to replace Hector Bellerin practically under wraps, but the former Barça coach was the one who decided to break this operation for reasons that are still unknown. It is not the first time that this has happened as he also insisted on the departure of [Raheem] Sterling to any club except Barcelona last summer."

Cancelo will return to Manchester City in the summer as Bayern have decided against exercising his option to buy, and when he turns up back at the Etihad he could link up with another player whose move to Barcelona may have been foiled by Pep.

Rumours about Ilkay Gundogan's transfer to Catalonia this summer have cooled of late and Guardiola has been quite clear about his desire to keep the experienced German around beyond this season.

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It is, of course, easy to look at these cases and claim that Guardiola has some sort of agenda against his former club, as Fichajes seems to suggest, also stating that he personally blocked Aymeric Laporte's and Bernardo Silva's Barcelona transfers.

But that is clearly not the case as there has been successful business between these two sides during Guardiola's reign, with Ferran Torres and Eric Garcia moving to the Camp Nou in recent seasons.