Barcelona Manager: 5 Candidates To Replace Pep Guardiola

Barcelona have scheduled a press conference for 11am (UK Time) today where Pep Guardiola, one of the club's most successful managers in history, is expected to announce his resignation at the end of the season. He won two Champions League trophies at Barcelona and three LA Liga Titles in his four years in charge and won't be easily replaced. Barca club president Sandro Rossell has a huge job on his hands replacing Guardiola. So let's help him out shall we? Here's the top five candidates who could replace him as Barca's new manager...

Luis Enrique

Roma manager Luis Enrique spent the majority of his playing days at Barcelona, appearing over 200 times at the Catalans and scoring 73 goals between 1996 and 2004. He was embraced by the Barcelona fans as a player having made the controversial switch from Real Madrid directly to their rivals but he had to work for their respect. It took him a while to win the Barca fans over but his hard work, skill and dedication for his team saw him become a popular figure at the club, eventually becoming first team captain and winning two La Liga titles. He started out his managerial career at the Barcelona B-team in 2008 when he took over from Pep Guadiola who had been promoted to the first team. He had great success at that level with many of the current Barca stars and last summer became Roma head coach where his side are challenging for a Europa League spot. Barca had so much success with their own man being manager in Guardiola that Enrique, despite his lack of experience, is one of the bookies favourites currently for the job.

Marcelo Bielsa

Athletic Bilbao manager Marcelo Bielsa is first or second favourite for the impending Barcelona vacancy, depending on which bookies you look at. The main reason for this is his stance on his teams playing "Total football" and he is often quoted as being the manager who most influenced Pep Guardiola's style of playing with Barcelona. So obviously Barcelona are monitoring him to pick-up where Guardiola left off. In his first season at the Spanish club Bilbao he has taken them to an unlikely Europa League final showdown against Athletic Madrid and are currently sixth in the domestic table with an outside chance of Champions League football. A move up to being Barcelona boss would obviously be a huge promotion but given his philosophy on football, he would fit Barcelona like a glove. Vastly experienced, Bielsa previously managed Argentina between 1998 and and 2004 and later Chile between 2007 and 2011.

Arsene Wenger

Another manager who is prominent with "Total football" and his sides playing the right way is Gunners boss Arsene Wenger. His philosophy on football is both admired but in recent years frowned upon by the Arsenal fans who haven't won any trophy since 2004. He created two dominating sides at Arsenal, the latter with players like Thierry Henry, Robert Pires, Freddie Ljunberg, Patrick Vieira and Dennis Bergkamp that became known as "The Invincibles" for going a whole season without being beat. At the early part of the last decade Arsenal were seen as playing the best football in the world. Although Wenger doesn't have those kind of players right now with few exceptions (Robin Van Persie obviously), they still play the same way and it would be a brand of football that Barcelona fans would be used to seeing. He is a master of the transfer market... for finding hidden gems and then selling them for several times their initial value. He would be a pleasing choice for Barca's book-keeping and would bring a focus on youth at Barcelona that may be required to shift out some of the aging players. He may get the best out of Cesc Fabregas and for Barca could be seen as the man who could also bring in Robin Van Persie to the Nou Camp. Would Arsene Wenger turn down Barcelona if they came calling? I'm not so sure.

Rafa Benitez

At one point Rafa would have been seen as an ideal candidate to replace Guardiola. His Valencia side of 2001-2002 and 2003-2004 trumped both Real Madrid and Barcelona to two La Liga titles playing a very attractive and attacking style of football. Their first title success was their first in 31 years, winning it by an incredible 7 point margin! He would later go on to win the UEFA Cup at Valencia before resigning in 2004 and becoming Liverpool manager. At Liverpool he incredibly won the Champions League in a season when the club only finished fifth in the league. He also brought an FA Cup title to Liverpool and for a few seasons were looking like credible title challengers. He has been given the top job in Europe before when European and Serie A champions Inter Milan chose him to be Jose Mourinho's successor but after a disastrous time, he was sacked after just six months. He has not been in management since and although his name value has likely dropped after his downfall at the end with Liverpool and his poor time at Inter, his CV is a solid one and Barca might be willing to take a gamble on him.

Johan Cruyff

One of the most famous exponents of the term "Total football", Johan Cruyff was one of the world's greatest players, the Lionel Messi of his era. He was a Barcelona legend in his five years as a player and came back to manage the club in 1988. They won the La Liga title four times and a European cup under his stewardship and won a record 11 titles as manager. Well it was a record before Pep Guardiola, one of Cruyff "pupils" as a player who he brought to the Catalans won 15 during his time in charge. He is often seen as one of the early architects in the style of Barca's current play. He ended his 13 year retirement as a coach when he took charge of the Catalonia national team in 2009 and he has managed Barca players Victor Valdes, Cesc Fabregas, Sergio Busquets and Xavi among others. Could Cruyff make a stunning return to a club he is synonymous with? Who do you think will be the next Barcelona manager? Comments welcome...