Franck Ribery suffered a major disappointment just before the World Cup 2014 after being ruled out of the tournament. This completed an indifferent last 12 months for the Frenchman, who came close to winning the FIFA Ballon d’Or award only to see Cristiano Ronaldo win the title. Even though he won the Bundesliga and the German Cup with Bayern Munich, he was not happy with the game time he received last season. Ribery was one of the players was constantly rotated, as Guardiola tried to find out the best position, in his system, for the 30-year-old.

At the end of the season, Ribery accepted that the constant rotation had not gone well with him. After having been a regular first-team player for the last decade, the prospect of having to fight for place in the team simply does not appeal to the 30-year-old. He is also a player who needs a run of matches in order to get form. After suffering an injury just before the start of the World Cup, Ribery was ruled out for more than six weeks. He appears to be back in time at just the right stage. Bayern Munich’s pre-season preparations are expected to begin shortly.

Guardiola has confirmed that he expects Ribery to be back in pre-season in the next few days.

"Ribery has trained well this week, I think he can play a couple of minutes in Hamburg. We have to adjust ourselves to the current situation. We will grow step by step,” said the former Barcelona manager. Guardiola came under intense criticism last season for his failure to change the tiki-taka style of football. It was very successful at Barcelona, but Bayern Munich appeared to struggle with this style last season. Even though they won the league title for a second consecutive season, it was seen as a mediocre campaign.