Guardiol' s hardest ride

BERLIN, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- Assessing Pep Guardiola and his era at Bayern Munich might be complicated. Has the 45-year-old football mastermind been successful in his three years or not? Was the Catalonian the right coach at the right time? You might get diverse answers depending on your perspective.

Fact is: Looking at the upcoming months, Guardiola and Bayern face the maybe toughest challenge ever. You might say there is just a job to do. Sure there is, but the situation couldn't be more complex as Guardiola in December announced to leave next summer and Bayern promptly presented Carlo Ancelotti as their next coach. When considering Guardiola's Bavarian era, winning the Champions League or failing again might help to create answers. The next approximately four months will be Guardiola's hardest ride in his career so far.

The perhaps most important question that has to be answered is: Is it enough when you can call a coach a development worker at this high level or is it vital that you win international titles besides the national successes?

It seems to be the key question and a heavy burden on the shoulders of all in Munich. 2013 Jupp Heynckes achieved what Guardiola is dreaming of despite the latter seemingly hiding his true feelings by statements that try to indicate a man at ease. Heynckes, knowing he would leave, won the treble.

"Titles are just numbers. Football is emotion," said Guardiola recently. He asked to be admired for the "football my team plays, not for the trophies I won, titles are nothing." He is both right and wrong. A coach taking over a club like Bayern Munich has to win international titles. That is part of his job profile. Looking at Bayern's style with Guardiola in charge, even critical pundits must admit: Bayern's play has never before been of such beauty. Under Guardiola, Bayern has no longer been accused of playing ice-cold football and being lucky. Non-Bayern fans called it "Bayern-luck" (Bayern-Dusel).

But after all, Guardiola was employed to develop Bayern Munich which he has undoubtedly done when it comes to tactics and flexibility. Bayern need and wanted an international figure like him to push the club forward to new international heights. Bayern wanted to close the gap to the big boys like Real Madrid and Barcelona. Today you would say, they have (well Guardiola has), but the final proof is still lacking. It will come if Bayern reverses previous results when they were painfully beaten in the past two years by Real and Barcelona in the semifinals of the Champions League.

Today the judgement on him has changed. Guardiola is seen less than a magical coach but more as a pragmatist who is not inevitably part of the furniture standing for emotions. This has turned out to be a certain problem in a club built on emotions and "homemade" world class stars. Guardiola lets on only very little keeping most of his thoughts to himself. His next challenge will be not to lose a team of individuals that have a high amount of self-motivation and keep an eye on the team spirit. Not all of Bayern's top players are sad about him leaving (for instance Franck Ribery). Guardiola has to watch his relationship to every squad member until he leaves.

After all Bayern and Guardiola for the rest of their time together can be seen as a partnership of convenience that has been through a lot of power struggles after Guardiola tried to test his influence within the club before being limited by the club bosses when it came to transfer decision-making and the battles with the team doctor.

Hesitating to make a clear statement and stay longer, Guardiola first lost a lot of sympathy and the understanding of Uli Hoeness. But now the former club president is the man everybody at Bayern Munich is counting on as he will leave jail after serving the two-year sentence for tax offences. When the second half of the German Bundesliga seasons kicks off this Friday evening with Bayern Munich's game in Hamburg, the imminent return of Hoeness (until now he is responsible for the club's youth teams) might help solve possible problems during the last meters of Guardiola and Bayern. The first serious test is waiting when Guardiola and Bayern meet Juventus Turin mid-February and mid-March in the round of the last 16 in the Champions League.

What Guardiola and Bayern need to do is to create a happy end and to get off to a good start in the second leg of the season as seven of their first ten games are away. They have to be aware that partnerships in football are most of the time contracts for a certain time, but not always a long-lasting love affair.

At the end Guardiola will have won several titles with Bayern (to date two German championships, one cup win, the European Supercup and the Club World Cup) and everyone has to decide if it was an inspiring and successful time together, no matter the number of titles.

Bayern Munich should sell Franck Ribery as soon as possible

The 32-year-old Frenchmen is a chronic injury risk and at some point that uncertainty costs Bayern Munich.

When healthy, Franck Ribery is still one of the best footballers in the world. His acumen on the dribble is second-to-none, his passing is sublime, and his directness for goal injects his teams with furiosity in attack. Then again, all of that skill comes with the caveat of "when healthy".

And Franck Ribery hasn't been healthy in nearly three years and it's starting to affect Bayern Munich. His minor-that-became-major injury from last March cost him nine months and he still wasn't fully fit when he returned. Injury followed and that's now cost him another nearly three months as he's not due to return until sometime in February, according to Kicker.

When Arjen Robben and Douglas Costa went down with injury in the Hinrunde, Bayern Munich were left with their sole healthy winger in young, inexperienced Kingsley Coman. As part of a diverse attack, Coman is a wonderful player but when he was asked to be the main foci of breaking down opposition defenses he struggled. And the reason he was left to his own devices? Because functionally Bayern Munich's depth equation is incomplete because they are planning that part of their roster around uncertainty. And who can blame them when it's a talent as prodigious as Ribery?

Like it or not, Costa, Robben, and Coman are going to get injured. It's the nature of the game and Bayern Munich need a secondary option that's reliable. Whether that's a depth option like Patrick Weihrauch or Julian Green or another young player in the mold of Kingsley Coman, Bayern Munich need depth that can be counted on to be there when the rest of the core is down.

And when counting on Bayern youth products Bayern Munich need to be able to realistically assess their contributions and make a determination as to whether they have a long term future. That involves giving them 10-20 minutes run outs in Bundesliga games and not dropping those minutes on trying to get Franck Ribery back to fitness.

As we saw this off season, this is a team starting their transition. The departure of Bastian Schweinsteiger was in some ways a benchmark for massive changes. Pep Guardiola's tenure is coming to an end soon and Carlo Ancelotti is going to have some serious choices to make about this team's structure. And you have to start that transition somewhere and removing a €12M chronically injured budget eater is a good place to start. Ribery's place on the roster is dead weight that robs Bayern Munich of the opportunity to bring in his successor and creates rippling issues when injuries occur to the rest of Bayern Munich's wide players.

With Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid staring 12-month transfer bans in the face next month, and a host of English clubs potentially in the same boat, the market for a temporary 32-year-old winger of Ribery's pedigree has probably never been higher. With Guardiola leaving in six months and Ancelotti coming in, now, or soon, is the time window in which Bayern Munich should be moving. They could regret it if Ribery returns to full fitness and has no more injury issues, but there's always inherent risk when making a decision about a player of Ribery's skill. But he's cost Bayern Munich so much over the last two years just due to uncertainty that at some point moving on becomes necessary.