I WOULDN’T HAVE MADE THE GRADE AT WIGAN
<M<IP B@:B# <M<IP >F8C# <M<IP >8D<# Guardiola turned down Latics for Qatar move
PEP GUARDIOLA reckons he wouldn’t have been good enough for Wigan if he had joined them in 2005.
Guardiola came within a whisker of signing for the Latics as a free agent when he was 32 and coming towards the end of his playing career. But the Manchester City manager rejected the move at the 11th hour after being offered a more lucrative deal by Al-Ahli in Qatar. More than a decade later Guardiola will finally grace the DW Stadium tonight when his City side face promotion-chasing League One Wigan in the FA Cup fifth round. But the Spaniard is convinced the then-Premier League outfit would have made a mistake by giving him a chance to play in England. Guardiola said: “When I was a football player, years ago, they tried to sign me. I was not good ® enough. That is the truth, yeah. I was old, really old, as a football player to come here.
“I tried to come here to play in English football but I was not able.
“They were interested in me, but I didn’t choose the club. It didn’t happen and that’s all. They were so clever because I was not good enough.”
Paul Jewell was Latics boss at the time and recalls how close he came to pulling off a major coup.
He said: “I got a call from Guardiola’s agent and he gave me Pep’s number so I rang him and left a message. Quite remarkably, five minutes later he rang me back.
He knew all about Wigan, all about our players – I was really impressed.
“We had a terrific conversation and he told me he would like to come and play in the Premier League.
Potential
“His wages weren’t extortionate and he was all set to come when his agent called me a couple of days later saying Pep had received a mind-blowing offer from Qatar. So it was Qatar or Wigan.
“The impressive thing was he knew all about Wigan. Even what formation we played. I just thought it showed great football knowledge throughout Europe.”