Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wohlfahrt is as far as doctors go, a bit of a celebrity. The 75-year-old has treated the likes of Usain Bolt, Bono and Ronaldo during his long medical career.
The German was head of the medical staff at Bayern Munich during Pep Guardiola's tenure at the club and in a new autobiography has lifted the lid on his fractured relationship with the Catalan.
Muller-Wohlfahrt writes that Guardiola blamed him and his staff for numerous injuries, and their working relationship eventually broke down after Bayern crashed out of Europe to Porto in 2015, Wohlfahrt stepping down after the defeat.
Muller-Wohlfahrt goes on to say that Pep was upset any time a player went off with a muscle injury and that the coach "turned back the clock" at Bayern by "turning upside down our well thought out, tried and trusted medical preparation programme.”
He knew everything better,” Muller-Wohlfahrt claims, and added that Guardiola “wasn’t interested at all in medical matters” but “expected medical wonders" from Muller-Wohlfahrt and his team.
Muller-Wohlfahrt also quotes Guardiola as saying that "It cannot be that injuries here (Germany) last six weeks but in Spain only a fortnight."
Wohlfahrt continued his broadside of the former Barca manager by claiming that he has low self esteem and that he has a problem with control:
I consider Pep Guardiola a person with a low self-esteem, who will do everything to hide it from others. He seems to live in constant fear of losing power and authority, rather than defeats.
Quite an attack on Guardiola from the German, whether it is borne out of bitterness is another question. Bayern CEO Uli Hoeness also appears in Muller-Wohlfahrt's book commenting that if he hadn't been in jail for tax evasion that Guardiola and Muller-Wohlfahrt wouldn't have fallen out:
If I hadn’t been impeded I could have intervened in the conflict between Mull and Pep Guardiola. Pep Guardiola is a very proud Catalan, and Spanish coaches have a totally different relationship with their club’s medical department.
Muller-Wohlfahrt, on the other hand, is a very proud doctor who doesn’t like discussing his very successful treatment methods. Two fronts collided full on in the spring of 2015. I was missing as a mediator. After defeats, similar scenes often followed like after the 3-1 loss in Porto - a lot more often that you imagine.
