5 Reasons Pep Guardiola Will Not Go to Chelsea

Pep Guardiola's cloud looms over many of the top managers in the game.

Since his announcement that he would leave Barcelona at the end of the season, there has been a lot of speculation as to where the manager will resume his career.

Even before his departure, the former Barcelona manager was linked to some of the best clubs across Europe. Chelsea is one of the mentioned suitors but it is hard to see the Catalan in charge at that London club.

Here are five reasons why Pep Guardiola will not go to Chelsea.

Roberto Di Matteo

This one is pretty self explanatory. Roberto Di Matteo has recently been selected as the full-time coach of club and has all the attributes necessary to keep the job.

He has the respect of his players and he has already given Roman Abramovich the thing he craves the most. That is, a Champions League trophy. He now has one year to add some stylish play to that.

He guided Chelsea to their position in the league and two trophies with a very cautious approach. With a full preseason ahead of him and some more quality in the squad, things could get better.

Di Matteo had West Bromwich playing some pretty decent football during the first part of the 2010/11 season, and he could reproduce and improve upon that with the players at his disposal at Stamford Bridge.

If Chelsea win at least one trophy next season under Di Matteo's guidance, he shouldn't be given the hook, even for a manager like Pep Guardiola.

You never know with Roman Abramovich, though.

Roman Abramovich

The Daily Mail provided an interesting look at how Roman Abramovich is trying to rebuild his side in preparation for a move for Pep Guardiola in the future.

Abramovich has neglected to fix one thing, though. That is, himself. There have been six managers at the club since Abramovich took over in 2003, and while that isn't the worst ratio in the world, it doesn't promote much confidence in Guardiola's potential tenure.

The Catalan manager has experience but did not face the sort of pressure that he would under the Russian owner. Would Guardiola want his first job back in the business to have such high stakes?

He certainly had to win at Barcelona, but there was a lot more faith and patience there. That was certainly helped by the club's spectacular first-year results while he was in charge.

Should Guardiola be unable to replicate similar feats with the Chelsea squad right away, he may face the axe.

Longevity doesn't seem to be a necessity for Guardiola, as his constant one-year contracts during his time at Barcelona showed. Having said that, trust, faith and patience might be.

Barcelona still wanted the manager around despite a poor, by their standards, 2011/12 campaign. Not that it was all his fault.

Would Abramovich show such patience? Not likely.

The Chelsea Old Guard

With Didier Drogba gone, Frank Lampard and John Terry especially are the players who may trouble Pep Guardiola.

He may arrive when it is time to begin phasing out the two players, but they showed their power in the dressing room when it came to Andre Villas-Boas.

They were not impressed with his reputation or his tactics, despite his credentials.

If you consider their possible ill-will toward Barcelona, they may not take too kindly to Pep Guardiola ordering them around.

Guardiola is certainly more experienced than his Portuguese counterpart, but his method of dealing with players he has problems with is actually quite ruthless. In past experiences with big-personality players Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Samuel Eto'o, Guardiola did the easiest thing he could and got rid of them.

There were even rumours about him and Gerard Pique having troubles at one point this season when it seemed the big defender was spending an unusual amount of time on the bench.

If he was able to deal with these players, maybe things could work out.

Rivalry

This ties in with the idea of the Chelsea old guard a little bit.

Would Pep Guardiola want to manage a team who has had some heated moments with his former club in the last few years? Doubtful.

Chelsea certainly aren't Real Madrid or Espanyol, and though Guardiola may respect certain things about the organization, he may not feel so warmly toward the idea of working at the club.

That sentiment does seem a bit petty when you consider the money that is likely to be involved, but it may just be that Pep Guardiola is one those people who prefers his principles over money.

Principles, in this case, meaning that he wouldn't want to work for an organization that has been very different from the one he has represented in management so far.

Other Clubs in the Running

Pep Guardiola will have no shortage of suitors whenever he does let it be known that he is ready to get back into the game.

Bayern Munich, Arsenal and Manchester United have all been linked with the manager. The three clubs are closer to Barcelona in terms of their philosophy of youth development and Arsenal especially stands out for their style of play on the field.

If that is not enough, there are other options such as Athletic Bilbao or even Manchester City. Guardiola has spoken of his respect for Bilbao, while City has the money to match any offer that is made.