Rio Ferdinand has hinted that Chelsea didn't have the ability to offer Guardiola history and commitment of time, with the defender reasoning that this was why he chose to make the move to Bayern Munich.

Chelsea were believed to be pushing hard to bring Guardiola to Stamford Bridge, with the club calling on the Spaniard to replace Roberto Di Matteo after he was sensationally sacked on the back of winning the Champions League.

Guardiola was also linked with a move to United if Sir Alex Ferguson felt it was time to hang up the hairdryer, and the fact that his deal with Bayern is for three years, around the amount of time speculated that Ferguson will stay at the club, has not gone unnoticed.

And Ferdinand says he believes that Guardiola is concerned with a club offering him history, money for players and time to make his mark as the Spanish tactician made the choice to head to Germany, with numerous sources including the Daily Mail and Goal.com claiming he was having a thinly veiled pop at Chelsea in his comments.

He posted on Twitter: "The news yesterday of Pep going to Bayern Munich was a shock...until you step back and think why...stability, organised, competitive in CL.

Pep Guardiola
Pep Guardiola went for Bayern Munich over Chelsea, and Rio Ferdinand understands why.

"Money to invest, history+time I'm assuming to put his stamp on the club... he obviously wasn't guaranteed all that at other clubs linked to!"

Meanwhile, current Barcelona manager Tito Vilanova gave Guardiola his blessing as the 41 year old looks ahead to taking over the German giants in the summer.

"I didn't know where he was going, I didn't know anything. I suppose he couldn't say. I'm very happy that he's returning to football and to one of Europe's great clubs," he said, according to the Independent.

"I don't know what possible teams he could have gone to, nor the kinds of contracts he was offered but I'm sure they were all of the top level. He had time to choose and would have thought it all over very well.

"What's clear is that he couldn't go wrong because they were all top teams. And Bayern are an historic club, with four Champions League titles with some fantastic facilities."

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