Bayern Munich doctor Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wohlfahrt has revealed Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was "aggressive" and demanded that the club's medical staff perform "miracles" when the Catalan coach was in charge at the Allianz Arena.
Guardiola left Barcelona in 2012 and took a sabbatical for a year. He took charge of Bayern in 2013. Muller-Wohlfahrt headed the medical department of the German giants at that time. The current Premier League leaders' boss and the doctor did not get along, and it was well-documented.
The falling-out between the pair saw Muller-Wohlfahrt leave Bayern after 38 years with the club in 2015. The former Barcelona manager left the Bundesliga outfit and moved to England in 2016. The doctor returned to the Allianz Arena in November 2017.
Muller-Wohlfahrt has revealed these details of the falling-out in his autobiography. German-language tabloid Bild has published excerpts from the book, which has been translated by Sport Witness.
The doctor said the number of injuries increased after Guardiola started managing the German champions. He also the 47-year-old did not trust the medical team at the club and was constantly under the fear of losing power at Bayern.
"Under Pep Guardiola, the climate changed at Bayern Munich, and it became more and more clear that he did not trust me and my team. On the one hand, he was totally uninterested in medical issues, but on the other hand, he demanded that we perform miracles," Muller-Wohlfahrt said.
"I thought I was coming to the best medical department in the world, and we have two long-term injuries that should have been good after the initial diagnosis. What's up with that?
"Guardiola was often portrayed in the media as an innovative, if not revolutionary, coach. But at Bayern Munich he turned the clock back tremendously. He even went so far as to turn our medically thought-out, well-rehearsed preparation program on its head before the actual football training.
"I remember one season under Jupp Heynckes, in which there were only three muscle injuries. That's a really low number considering the demands on the players.
"And I do not rely on my memory or my gut feeling, but on the official statistics of the Uefa Elite Club Injury Study, in which Bayern was always among the clubs with the fewest injuries.
"Then came Pep Guardiola. And right in the first season we had far, far more muscle injuries than in the successful 2012/13 season before. And he knew everything better:
"Five minutes warm-up in a rush, that had to be enough. But that could not be good. Already at the club World Club Cup in Morocco at the end of his first preliminary round, every attentive spectator had to notice that the Bayern players were not fit.
"But I simply could not reach Pep Guardiola with the way I think and work. Even my reports of injured players did not interest him. Whenever I wanted to talk to him, he immediately turned away and walked away.
"I think Pep Guardiola is a person of low self-esteem, who does everything in his power to mislead others. He therefore seems to live in constant fear, not so much in defeat, but much more in the loss of power and authority."
