PEP GUARDIOLA TO QUIT BARCA

Pep Guardiola set to announce he is quiting barcelona at a press conference this lunch time. He informed his team that he will be leaving the team at the end of the season. According to the report from spain Guardiola who is out of contract at the end of the season, is
understood to have told the
club president, Sandro Rosell,
of his decision of leaving the club on thursday
that he did not wish to sign a new one and will leave after
the Copa del Rey final.

is
understood to have told the
club president, Sandro Rosell,
of his decision on Thursday
that he did not wish to sign a new one and will leave after
the Copa del Rey final.

The 41-year-old manager has
led Barcelona to 13 trophies
since taking over at the
beginning of the 2008-09
season, including 2 Champions Leagues and three Spanish league titles.

During the past week,
Barcelona were knocked out
of the Champions League at
the semi-final stage by Chelsea
and suffered a home defeat
by better rival Real Madrid that will certainly cost them the
Spanish title.

Guardiola stepped up from
Barcelona team B manager to the first-
team in 2008 and has gone on
to become the most successful
coach in the club's history. But
the set back against Chelsea came only 72 hours after
Barça's hopes of retaining
their league title were dashed
following a 2-1 defeat at
home to bitter rival Real
Madrid. That loss left them seven points behind José
Mourinho's men with four
games remaining.

Guardiola led Barça to the
Primera Division title in his
first season in charge after
master minding a squad
overhaul which saw the likes
of Ronaldinho and Deco sold and a greater emphasis placed
on youth.

The results were immediate.
Not only did Barça win the
league, the highlight being a
6-2 thrashing of Madrid at the
Bernabéu but they also
claimed the Copa del Rey and Champions League. The 2009-10 campaign began
with further success in the
Spanish Super Cup, Uefa Super
Cup and Fifa World Club Cup as
Barça became the first club
side to win six major trophies in one calendar year. They
failed to defend their
Champions League crown
after being eliminated by
Mourinho led Internazional to the semi-final stage but retained their league title with
a record points total of 99. With Madrid recruiting
Mourinho in a bid to end
Barcelona's run of success, the
2010-11 season was supposed
to pose new challenges for
Guardiola. But the former Spain midfielder(Guadiola), having
signed David Villa to replace
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, guided
Barça to the league title once
more and they backed that up
by winning the Champions League again by defeating
Manchester united at wembley.

Cesc Fábregas joined the team from
Arsenal in the summer of 2011
as Guardiola again placed his
faith in products of the La
Masia academy and while the
free-flowing football remained, long winning runs
were punctuated with
surprise defeats.

The Spanish Super Cup and
Uefa Super Cup were won, as
was the Fifa Club World Cup,
but league set backs against
Getafe and Osasuna
undermined their title challenge. Barça have qualified for the
final of the Copa del Rey next
month in which they will
meet Athletic Bilbao in what
is set to be Guardiola's final
game in charge. Speculation has begun over his
potential successor with
Ernesto Valverde, Marcelo
Bielsa and Laurent Blanc all
thought to be in the frame. As for Guardiola, he is
expected to take a sabbatical
from the game despite being
linked with numerous jobs
across Europe.