Is the African curse really on Guardiola? Or he just blew it again?

If you can’t explain to yourself how the best manager in the Premier League still cannot win the Champions league since 2011, with all that money invested by the Arabs, and you are into the conspiracy theories, here is one: Pep Guardiola is under an African curse, after his dealings with club’s captain Yaya Toure in 2018.

The Ivorian midfielder had a big row with the Spaniard, and even claimed that former Barca coach’s reputation is a myth, and that he always had problems with African players throughout his career.

„Guardiola turned all Africa against himself, many African fans turned away from Manchester City. And I’m sure that many African shamans in the future will not allow Guardiola to win the Champions League This will be for Guardiola an African curse. Life will show whether I am right or not. The fact that Guardiola ended Yaya’s career in Manchester City is not even a mistake, but a crime. But the boomerang will return, Pep. You will still see what the African shamans are. Remember this always“ said Toure's agent Dmitri Seluk at the time.

Since the „curse“, The Spaniard really didn’t have any luck with the Champions League, the only competition the Arab owners are really after. But what about the seasons before the „shaman curse“? The Spaniard failed to win the Champions League since 2011, seven years before Toure decided to mess with woodoo. So it seems that Guardiola’s mess is just his own after all. Not only did he failed to win the most prestigious European championship with City, after the owners invested a staggering 128 billion Ksh so far, but he didn’t do it while he was the coach in Bayern Munich either. In fact, both Carlo Ancelotti and Zinedine Zidane have more Champions League trophies than him, and the recenlty sacked Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho also has two, like Pep.

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Surprisingly, the Spaniard didn’t learned his leason from previous Europe failures: don’t change the teams that wins. Last season, he totaly unexpectedly changed the team structure and played with five players in defense, which resulted by a defeat from Lyon in the quarter final. And on Saturday, in his desperate attempt to surpise Tuchel, who defeated him twice this season already, he left both Fernandinho and Rodri on the bench and played only with Gundogan as the holding midfielder. The result: fluid attacking from Chelsea side which eventually resulted with a Havertz winner.

„I decided the decision, to have quality players. Gundogan played many years in this position. To have speed, to find the small spaces, the quality, the brilliant players, inside, in the middle and between the lines. This was the decision. We have to learn from this. This season was exceptional. We’ll come back strong in the future“ said Guardiola of his team selection.

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Even Thomas Tuchel was surprised by this counterpart’s decision.

„We expected Fernandinho in the line-up. They chose a very offensive line-up. Very technical. It was important that we stepped out of the back five to support our midfield. We had to play with a strong bond and that is exactly what we did“ said the German. 

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Guardola used this opportunity to reflect on the season behind him and insisted it was still a good one, despite the lost final.

„I would like to say it was an exceptional season for us. It was a dream for us to be here, unfortunately we could not win. For most of us in this club it is the first time here, but we work to come back one day. It was a tough season in the pandemic, but we learn from this for the future. I have incredible respect for the players, they gave everything, but we will come back stronger. I want to congratulate them for their exceptional season“ added the Spaniard.

The new season will start very soon, and we’ll see if Guardiola has learned anything after this.