Story highlights
Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas says Bayern Munich is right club for Pep Guardiola
Former Barcelona coach is to take over at German giants in July 2013
Villas-Boas says Bayern is perfect for Guardiola to continue his football philosophy
Guardiola won 14 trophies in four seasons as coach of Barca before taking year out
Tottenham Hotspur manager Andre Villas-Boas has told CNN that Bayern Munich is the perfect club for all conquering coach Pep Guardiola to promote his football message.
Guardiola signed a three-year deal with the German giants last week after masterminding an incredible 14 trophies in four seasons with Barcelona.
After deciding to take a year away from the game citing exhaustion, the 42-year-old will return to football in July aiming to add to his two European Champions League triumphs.
And while Villas-Boas, who led Portuguese side Porto to four trophies in his first season as coach aged just 33, was surprised at Guardiola’s decision to go to Germany, he thinks it is the perfect vehicle for his counterpart to extol his pure footballing principles.
Read: ‘Pep will make Bayern’s team better players and people’
“I think in Bayern he will find the right setup to continue, not only to promote his message of football, which is immense, but the way he believes in this game and the way he has changed the nature of the game,” he told CNN.
Villas-Boas knows all about the pressure at the highest level of management. After swapping Porto for English club Chelsea in 2011 he was sacked by Russian owner Roman Abramovich after just nine months in charge.
Having swapped west London for north, joining Tottenham in July 2012, the 35-year-old is trying to rebuild his reputation, leading his new club to fourth place in the English Premier League.
Speculation was rife that Guardiola would head for England to coach either Villas-Boas’s former club Chelsea, Arsenal or Manchester United.
And Villas-Boas says he was shocked when Bayern announced Guardiola would take over from current coach, Jupp Heynckes, at the end of this season.
“I was so surprised that I asked my media adviser from Tottenham if it was true,” he added.
“Obviously it’s a big, big club, one of the biggest clubs in the world, in a league where we didn’t maybe expect Guardiola to go to.
“There’s a great respect from all managers towards Jupp Heynckes and what he has achieved in his career.”
Guardiola won La Liga, the Spanish Cup and the European Champions League in his first season as Barca manager in 2008-09.
He went on to retain the Spanish League title twice more and add another Champions League triumph in 2009-10.
In his final season Barca only managed to win the Spanish Cup before Guardiola stunned world football by saying he needed time away from the game. His assistant, Tito Vilanova assumed the reins.
Villas-Boas is convinced Guardiola can add to his reputation as one of the finest coaches the game has seen with more trophy-laden years at Bayern,
“Guardiola is obviously going to become one of the greatest managers in football,” he said. “He’s won, I think, 14 trophies in 16 (competitions) and he’s had such an amazing career.”