News analysis: Is Guardiola still right man for Bayern Munich?

Is it a moment to twinkle with your eye when your dreams burst into pieces? Maybe not at first sight when you meet the world's best in the last four in a Champions League campaign that you are dying to win yourself.

But in a football club's life, such as the one of Bayern Munich and that of its coach Pep Guardiola, something like the two games can be seen as a promise for the future.

At the Champions League semi-finals, Barcelona won 5-3 on aggregate with Bayern winning the second leg 3-2. The message sent out from the 2015 German champions now can only be: We will be back (next year?) and the cards will be reshuffled.

Two years ago, Barcelona was the one left with a tear in their eye after losing 7-0 to Bayern on aggregate. But in their faces you could as well see they were willing to "learn a lesson" from what happened.

Now it is Bayern Munich's turn to do so despite the fact that things might have been different this time if they had had every man on board like the brilliant Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery (and David Alaba) to take on the 2015 world's best strike force of Messi-Neymar-Suarez (good for 114 goals).

It might be a generally one-sided judgment and subjective perspective, but it wasn't as if Barcelona was light-years ahead. Though much better, they are not out of sight.

Football, even at the highest level, always contains a next stage. In the case of Bayern Munich the question is: How to do it? Will Guardiola be the conductor of the club's orchestra as, looking at the example of Barcelona, it might take two years to grow into a team capable of beating the world?

What Bayern and Guardiola now know is that they are not in a status to challenge world's top team - Barcelona. It now has to be decided by the 44-year old Spaniard if he is willing to continue what he started in 2013 as the successor of Jupp Heynckes who had won the triple.

It is doubtful that Bayern's club officials are willing to invest up to 100 million euro (or more?) to update a squad which contains players who are over the hill, knowing the man to coach them might leave after only a season. Meaning Guardiola's successor would have to take over Guardiola's team.

"If Guardiola is ready to rebuild the team, it would make sense to extend his contract and stay longer than 2016. To do it in only one year does not make sense to me," Bayern Munich legend Franz Beckenbauer said.

Bayern is economically healthy to splash out an awful lot of money as they just have been guaranteed approximately 900 million euros from their equipment supplier Adidas in an extended contract running until 2030 (60 million euros per year).

The question will be: How much will Bayern go to convince a man like Guardiola to stay longer than 2016 as clubs like Manchester City are willing to get him? Meaning: Will they give Guardiola even more power to manage their dreams?

After all: The Spaniard Guardiola has been beaten by two Spanish teams (Real Madrid and Barcelona) in the last two years.

Bayern's CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, a devoted fan of the Spaniard, knows, as do former president Uli Hoeness and Director of Football Matthias Sammer, Guardiola has done a good job lifting the Bayern team to the next level when it comes to dominating a game. No other German team has been a similar outstanding dominator in the Bundesliga.

The Spaniard is known as a man with own ideas and demands. He was not afraid to pull down a monument like Bayern's team doctor Hans-Wilhelm Mueller-Wohlfahrt. Guardiola wanted the doctor to be around at the training ground every day, Mueller-Wohlfahrt did not, and try a more risky therapy every now and then.

What alternatives do Bayern have as regards a new coach? Might they try another coach from abroad after Juergen Klinsmann, Louis van Gaal and Guardiola?

To sign Juergen Klopp, who will leave Borussia Dortmund at the end of this season, right away seems to be difficult due to the rivalry between Dortmund and Bayern. Lucien Favre from Borussia Moenchengladbach, one of the top coaches in Germany at present, is about to qualify for the Champions League which makes him a hero at Moenchengladbach. It is doubtful that the Swiss coach will leave his club now.

But in 2015 Bayern only won the German title which is not regarded as the optimum. To rely on Guardiola, Bayern was trying to secure the optimum. In two years the Spaniard has not been able to fulfill the high expectations.

More so-called big sons of world football might now be needed to make Bayern more competitive. Angel di Maria (Manchester United), Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid), Marco Verrati (Paris St. Germain), Yacine Brahimi (FC Porto), Kevin de Bruyne (VfL Wolfsburg) and Ilkay Guendogan (Borussia Dortmund), rumors say, are on Bayern's list.

It might be a sign containing optimism for all Bayern fans around the world that Guardiola gathered his team right after being eliminated by Barcelona in the semifinal of the 2014/2015 Champions League. He might have told them with a twinkle in his eye: We will be back soon. Endi