Manager Betting: Pep Guardiola 5/1 to go back to Barcelona next

Joan Laporta wants to win the Barcelona presidential election next summer and bring Pep Guardiola back to Camp Nou, reports Max Liu...

Pep Guardiola is 5/1 to go back to Barcelona for his next job after one of the leading candidates for the club's presidency said he wanted to reappoint the Man City boss.

Joan Laporta was Barcelona's president from 2003 to 2010 and was in charge when Guardiola was made first team head coach in 2008. Laporta is credited with taking a chance on Guardiola - regarded by many as the greatest coach of his generation - at a moment when he had never previously held a job in senior management.

The gamble on Guardiola paid off and, under his management, Barcelona won a La Liga, Copa del Rey and Champions League treble in his first season and went on to win Europe's biggest prize again in 2011.

Guardiola to return in 2021?

Now Laporta is bidding to become president of Barcelona for a second time, when the club holds elections next year, and he is already targeting a return for Guardiola.

"I would very much like Guardiola to come back but now he is at City and it is a decision that Pep should take," said Laporta this week. "He is a benchmark for Barcelona and many Catalans would like him to coach Barça again. At the right time, I will speak to the person we think should be a Barça coach from 2021."

The timing could be right for Guardiola whose contract at City runs out next summer. He has said he would not leave before then even though the club were handed a two-year from European competition by UEFA earlier this year.

Barca, meanwhile, are going through upheaval at the moment with six directors resigning last month in protest at how the club is being run. Quique Setien (pictured above) was appointed as head coach in January, bringing to an end Ernesto Valverde's three year regin, but Seitien has plenty to prove even though Barca are 1.59 to win La Liga if it is completed this season.

On Sportsbook Juventus 4/7 are the favourites to recruit Guardiola when his City reign reaches its end. Between Barca and City he managed Bayern Munich, so if he were to manage the Italian champions it would mean he'd worked in all of Europe's big four leagues.

When it comes to who will manage Barca next their former midfielder Xavi, who was a key player under Guardiola, is 4/7. He is currently in charge of Qatari side Al Saad.