Former Manchester United midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger has accused Pep Guardiola of being the reason behind Germany struggling in recent tournaments.
It was 1996 when I first suffered heartbreak as a fan of the England national team, as Germany knocked the Three Lions out of their home Euros.
Already by that point I was aware of Italia 90 and since then I've also witnessed them knock us out of the World Cup in 2010, and was in Brazil as they won the World Cup in 2014.
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No matter what happened in football I grew up with the moniker "never rule out the Germans" and I had a lot of evidence to suggest it was correct.
However since their victory in South America nine years ago it hasn't gone well for the Germans at major tournaments at all.
They succumbed to the World Cup curse in 2018, going out in the group stage for the first time since the groups were introduced and then were knocked out in the last 16 of Euro 2020 by England.
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Last December they once again didn't make it to the knockout stages of the World Cup, thanks to Japan's very controversial goal.
Now ex United midfielder Schweinsteiger has suggested that the issues all started with Guardiola taking over at Bayern Munich in 2013.
"Well it's a situation that's very tricky for the German national team and football in general," Schweinsteiger told talkSPORT when asked why Germany had struggled recently.
"I think there has been a lot of change. You know when Pep Guardiola joined Bayern Munich when he came to the country, everyone believed we had to play this kind of football, like short passes and everything.
"We were kind of losing our values you know. I think most of the other countries were looking at Germany as a fighter and we can run until the end and everything.
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"The strengths, through the last seven, eight years, we forgot about that.
"We were more focused on playing the ball nicely to each other and that's one of the reasons."
It's an interesting take from the former Bayern Munich midfielder considering that most people see the City manager's influence as a good thing.
During his time in England it's often been said that teams down the football ladder have played like a Guardiola side and some believe it's the reason he's a better manager than Sir Alex Ferguson.
Featured Image Credit: talkSPORT/GettyTopics: Football, Germany, Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Bundesliga, Pep Guardiola, Bastian Schweinsteiger
