Guardiola speculates on his future, reminisces about Barça days

Josep Guardiola has not ruled out coaching Italy one day. The current Manchester City coach, during a festival in the country organised by "La Gazzetta dello Sport", was asked about his future. 

"Me in Italy? Why not?" he responded, adding that a few years ago he wasn't thinking of working for Bayern Munich, who he took over in 2013. 

However, he highlighted that he's comfortable at Manchester City and enjoying England at the moment. The Catalan coach also spoke about his time at Barcelona, where he was coach between 2008 and 2012, saying his success at Camp Nou was the result of the perfect connection between the players, the club and the coach "that only happens once in a lifetime." 

Pep confessed that seeing images of those Barça years bring "nostalgia" and "joy". He added: "The two times we won the Champions League, we did so with seven players from the academy, like Xavi, Iniesta, Valdes, who joined Barça aged seven or eight. The stars aligned. These things only happen once. 

"The club had confidence in me and the players had an affinity. We had money to buy great players and we had the best player in the world (Lionel Messi) by a distance." 

PRAISE Messi

Guardiola defined Messi as "a competitive animal, fierce" and said that he "hates losing," all of which were key components to his success at Barcelona. 

"If the team is with him at the big moments, he makes the difference. Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have spent 10 years scoring 50 goals a season, it's incredible. It's not one year, it's year after year, more and more," he explained. 

The coach also played down current side City's hopes of winning the Champions League: "Our best success as a club was a semifinal in 2016. I don't know if we're ready. We don't have the history behind us to say we're at those heights. Honestly, I don't know. 

"[Among those most prepared] are Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus with Cristiano... Each year it's closer. Atletico have the final at home and have always done well in recent years. I hope we can be there."