Guardiola tipped for major national team job if he leaves Man City

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Martin Macdonald | Writer

Content writer covering football, formula 1 and movies

Italy legend Leonardo Bonucci believes Pep Guardiola is the only man who can bring the Azzurri out of their current international funk.

The nation, who are four-time winners of the World Cup (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006), recently failed to qualify for the tournament for the third time in a row.

After a disappointing 2026 World Cup qualification campaign that saw them finish six points behind group winners Norway in Group I, the Azzurri had to navigate the World Cup playoffs.

In their first match, they cruised through with relative comfort after a 2-0 win against Northern Ireland, with Sandro Tonali and Moise Kean scoring the goals.

That night, footage emerged of the squad celebrating the fact that they had drawn against Bosnia & Herzegovina, a supposed weaker opponent.

That was all the motivation the Bosnia & Herzegovina players needed as they eventually won the tie on penalties and progressed to the World Cup.

Italy took the lead through Kean but things turned sour for Gennaro Gattuso's men after Alessandro Bastoni was given a straight red card for a last-man foul.

Haris Tabakovic scored the equaliser, which gave the platform for the hosts to go on and win.

Pep to take over?

Even though Italy won Euro 2020, it has been an embarrassing decade for them on the world stage as they have failed to qualify for the third World Cup in a row for the first time in their history.

A radical overhaul is required, and Bonucci, who earned 121 caps for the national team, believes Guardiola's philosophy could shape Italy for the future.

"The important thing is to rebuild Italian football from the ground up, starting with the defence," he said, as quoted by Foot Mercato.

"We must have the courage to face the situation head-on in order to regain the respect of the entire world and become that great team that was once world champion.

"There are very talented young players; we must give them time to develop and progress. Time is the only miracle solution, and if radical change is desired, Pep is the man for the job. It's difficult, but dreaming is free."

Guardiola is the second-most decorated football manager of all time, behind Sir Alex Ferguson, and has been credited with shaping the modern game through the Barcelona Tiki-Taka style football that he helped evolve during his time at Camp Nou.

At the moment, he is still deep in a title race with Manchester City up against Arsenal but there have been ongoing rumours this season that he may leave the Etihad in the summer.

If he does, it's unlikely he will take any role with Italy as the Spaniard has previously indicated he plans to take a long break from the game after leaving City.

The issues with Italian football

Legendary Italian head coach Fabio Capello previously highlighted the three main reasons why Italian football is struggling at the moment, and it starts with an influx of foreign players who aren't improving the quality of Serie A, instead holding down spots that could be given to young Italians.

"There is a connection between European flops and World Cup risks, and it starts with the value of foreign players," Capello told Gazzetta dello Sport.

"In my day, when I was playing, I always studied Luis Suarez, the best of them all, as well as [Giacomo] Bulgarelli, who was a few years older than me. They were role models. They were masters. When I was a coach, we had the best in the world in Italy.

"Today, there are [Luka] Modric, [Adrien] Rabiot and a few others. And we sell the really good ones, whereas once, at least until 2010, they all came here because we were a benchmark. Without that example, our players cannot improve. But that's not the only problem.

"The absolute lack of Italian players in Serie A. Foreigners occupy those positions, even if they are modest ones. Do we really think they are all better than ours? Of course, if we were to fail in the third World Cup, I would have no doubt: it would mean that all the policies on our youth football have been wrong."

Capello was speaking before Italy failed in their attempt to reach the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

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