Honigstein o Mandži:

The coach had upped the stakes further by changing the system and leaving behind Mario Mandzukic, the powerful striker who was such a key component of the treble winners under Jupp Heynckes. Guardiola spoke of "sporting reasons" for leaving the Croatian behind in Munich but that was only half the story: "Mandzu" has been axed for good. The 27-year-old will not be seen in a Bayern shirt again.

That's what tends to happen to big centre-forwards in Guardiola's teams, one could argue, but football tactics have played almost no role in that decision. Mandzukic had already been left out of the squad for the league game at Gladbach in January for not training well after ignoring several warnings. Whether Robert Lewandowski's imminent arrival from Dortmund gave him the hump or not is hard to tell but his behaviour had become problematic in a dressing room full of players who all had to deal with reduced playing times this season. The final straw, according to Monday's edition of Bild, had come on the night of the 4-0 defeat by Madrid two weeks ago. In an emotional internal speech after the final whistle, Guardiola took full responsibility for the defeat and moved one or two players to tears. Mandzukic, however, was "smiling provocatively" throughout, having earlier made "dismissive gestures in training". Rummenigge implicitly confirmed this version of events in the German capital – "It perhaps fits the situation of the last few weeks," he said about the striker's decision to join up with Croatia rather than to accompany the team over the weekend. According to Bild, he's already cleared his locker at Säbenerstrasse. He'll be perfect for Chelsea – at the least in the sense that he'll undoubtedly have plenty of bad things to say about Guardiola in the coming months.

Most teams have at least one Mandzukic-type character in their squad. But they're only indulged as long as they produce performances that are in line with the size of their ego. Inside the team, Guardiola's hard stance on the forward was greeted with plenty of approval. It was seen as fair and perfectly appropriate after months and months of public declarations that stressed the paramount importance of team spirit and personal sacrifice.

Meni je drago da napušta Bayern gdje bi mu minutaža bila znatno smanjena, ovako može birat klub, koji god ga dovede, neće ga dovodit da im sjedi na klupi.