Maradona: Guardiola can teach me to coach

Diego Maradona admits he could learn a thing or two about coaching from Pep Guardiola after the Spaniard won the Bundesliga title in record time at Bayern Munich. The 53-year-old Maradona told German magazine Sport Bild said he would like to watch Guardiola work at close quarters. "I would like to spend a week working with Guardiola to watch him in training," said Maradona, who won the 1986 World Cup with Argentina and coached the south Americans at the 2010 tournament in South Africa. "It would give me great pleasure to visit Bayern Munich." Bayern's 3-1 win at Hertha Berlin on Tuesday saw Guardiola's side crowned German champions for the 24th time with a record seven games to spare. After only nine months in charge, it is Guardiola's third title at Bayern after the UEFA Super Cup and Club World Cup and the Spaniard's success is no surprise to his former Barcelona coach Johan Cruyff. "I know Pep very well and I know how smart he is," ex-Dutch star Cruyff, 66, said in an interview with Munich newspapers Muenchner Merkur and TZ. "It was clear to me that he didn't go to Bayern with the absolute intention of wanting to change everything. He's the sort who wants to have everything working optimally and when it does, he just changes details. "That's his gift: precisely why he's a good trainer is because he knows that anything good can always be improved." Having won three European Cups with Ajax, Cruyff spent five years playing for Barcelona and then managed the Spanish giants for eight years until 1996, with Guardiola in his squad. Cruyff's record of 11 trophies at Barcelona was only bettered by Guardiola's 14 trophies in four years as manager at the Camp Nou until 2012 before he took charge at Bayern. Guardiola's immediate success at Bayern is no accident, according to Cruyff. "He knew exactly what was expected of him and he had seven, eight months to prepare for working at the club and had, for example, learned German, which I find very important," said the Dutchman. "That's typical Pep: he leaves nothing to chance." Source: AFP