Pep Guardiola believes Vicente del Bosque is "the right man" to lead Spain forward after the European and world champions crashed out of the World Cup.
The current Bayern Munich boss and former Spain midfielder revealed he was sad to see the demise of the team that won three successive international tournaments, but admitted that changes had to be made to the side.
Del Bosque has been in charge of the Spanish national side since 2008 and is under contract until 2016, but his team's shock exit from the tournament has made him reconsider his future, with an announcement expected next week.
However, Guardiola has no doubts that Del Bosque should continue in the job and lead Spain to the 2016 European Championships in France.
"Del Bosque is the best coach Spain could have and I hope he stays, because he is the right man to make the changes the team needs," Guardiola told a conference in Buenos Aires.
Guardiola worked with a number of the players involved in Spain's disastrous World Cup campaign while he was the coach of Barcelona, including Xavi Hernandez, Gerard Pique, Cesc Fabregas and Pedro, and lamented their early exit from Brazil following the emphatic defeats to Holland and Chile.
"Spain made me very sad," he said.
"Football owes these players so much as they have done so much for the sport, which means they deserved to be able to compete in the final stages."
