Pep Guardiola has been subjected to a scathing attack from the Bayern Munich doctor with whom he had a highly publicised fall-out during his spell in charge of the German club.
Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wohlfahrt has described Guardiola as a “person with low self-esteem, who will do everything to hide it from others” in an extraordinary rebuke of the Manchester City manager.
The highly-regarded doctor, 75, left Bayern after 38 years in the wake of a 3-1 Champions League quarter-final first leg defeat away to Porto in April 2015 that he claims Guardiola blamed him for and which proved the tipping point in their troubled relationship.
Muller-Wohlfahrt, who has since returned to Bayern for a third spell with the German giants, has alleged he was “verbally attacked” by Guardiola “while the players were receiving treatment”.
He also says he was “blamed for the numerous injuries, the physical condition of the players and ultimately for the defeat” by Porto in Portugal and that his “sense of honour” had been hurt by Guardiola, who spent three seasons in charge at Bayern between 2013 and 2016 before joining City.
The revelations are documented in Muller-Wohlfahrt’s new autobiography, which is being serialised by the German newspaper Bild.
According to Muller-Wohlfahrt, Guardiola – the former Barcelona coach - had told him: “It cannot be that injuries here last six weeks but in Spain only a fortnight.”
The doctor claims Guardiola was “upset every time a player had to come off with a muscle injury” and told them they should play on and accused the Catalan of “turning back the clock” at Bayern and “turning upside down our well thought out, tried and trusted medical preparation programme.”
He also accused Guardiola of always being “reproachful and indignant” when it came to the subject of injured players. “He knew everything better,” Muller-Wohlfahrt claimed, and added that Guardiola “wasn’t interested at all in medical matters” but “expected medical wonders from us”.
“I consider Pep Guardiola a person with a low self-esteem, who will do everything to hide it from others,” Muller-Wohlfahrt wrote in the book. “He seems to live in constant fear of losing power and authority, rather than defeats”.
In the extracts from the book serialised by Bild, Bayern president Uli Hoeness said he believed he could have prevented the falling out had he not been serving time in prison for tax evasion. Hoeness was convicted in March 2014 for evading €28.5 million in taxes and served half of a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence.
“If I hadn’t been impeded I could have intervened in the conflict between Mull and Pep Guardiola,” Hoeness said. “Pep Guardiola is a very proud Catalan, and Spanish coaches have a totally different relationship with their club’s medical department.
“Muller-Wohlfahrt, on the other hand, is a very proud doctor who doesn’t like discussing his very successful treatment methods. Two fronts collided full on in the spring of 2015. I was missing as a mediator. After defeats, similar scenes often followed like after the 3-1 loss in Porto - a lot more often that you imagine.
“A reason why Bayern Munich has become so successful is because of its exceptional medical department which Muller-Wohlfahrt was and is responsible for again now. The club owes him a great deal.”
Despite City’s state of the art medical facilities at their CFA training base, Guardiola has often insisted on his injured players flying to Barcelona to visit orthopaedic surgeon Dr Ramon Cugat at the Quironsalud hospital. Guardiola flew to Abu Dhabi with his City squad after Monday’s 2-0 win over Stoke City for a warm weather training break in the emirate.
