Pep Guardiola says that he would never have considered taking the manager's job at Chelsea, due to the short term mentality of the club's owner Roman Abramovich. Current Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri has found himself under mounting pressure at the club this season, despite only arriving in the summer.
The London side have had 13 different managers during the Russian's ownership spell, and have become known to quickly cut ties with their coaches without a second thought.
Guardiola himself was linked with Chelsea a number of times over the year, but today said that it is a team he would never have considered managing. He compared their lack of patience with Manchester City's understanding during his own debut season in English football, when they limped to a third place finish:
In my first year never the club doubted me. It was never in the media that I'd be sacked if we lose this game.
I was surprised that when (Antonio) Conte won the title and they lost one or two games at the beginning of the season, people start to say he was going to be sacked. I said: “Wow, but two or three months ago they won the Premier League”.
I was never a potential option for Chelsea. I decided to go to Bayern Munich and came here with Ferran (Soriano) and Txiki (Begiristain), they trust me and I trust them.
In the first season when it was difficult I said we needed time and they supported me. The players knew who was the manager and who would be the manager.
It was stable, that's the best way to do something for a long time, not just a short period.
Even though it is looking increasingly likely that Sarri could lose his job, Chelsea are not in that bad of a position. They currently sit one point off the top four, and could capture silverware in this Sunday's Carabao Cup final.
A couple of heavy defeats against Manchester City and Bournemouth have blemished his record, while the poor performance against Manchester United in the FA Cup earlier this week is unlikely to have went over well in West London.
One things that seems certain is that we are unlikely to Pep Guardiola in the home dugout at Stamford Bridge anytime soon.
