Spanish outlet AS brings a very interesting article about an offer that Pep Guardiola had in his early days as a coach.
The story is told by Eduardo Aguillera, who used to be Leganes’ vice president a decade ago. He reveals that he’d read about the now Manchester City manager’s studies to become a manager, and suggested his name to the club.
“I saw in the newspaper that Pep was preparing for the benches and I thought it would be a fantastic idea,” Aguillera told AS.
It’s claimed the La Liga side, who played in the second division at the time, had prepared to offer Guardiola €30k per season. But the proposal was ‘kindly’ rejected by the Catalan boss.
“He said he was flattered by the interest of a club like Lega,” says Aguillera.Still in that year, Guardiola ended up accepting an offer from Barcelona B. He stayed in charge of the squad for one year, and later took Frank Rijkaard’s place in the first team.
With Guardiola’s qualities, it was obviously a matter of time until he reached the top clubs. But maybe things would’ve happened differently had he taken the Leganes job in 2007.
