Guardiola does not deny reports on his City exit

By AP

MANCHESTER, May 20: Pep Guardiola addressed the fevered speculation about his future at Manchester City by saying he will talk to club chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak in the upcoming days before announcing whether he’ll see out the remaining year of his contract.

Several outlets in the British media, including national broadcaster the BBC, have reported that Guardiola will be leaving at the end of this season and that Enzo Maresca – the former Chelsea manager who was previously assistant to Guardiola at City – is the leading contender to take over.

Speaking after a draw at Bournemouth that ended City’s chances of winning the Premier League, Guardiola didn’t deny the widespread reports indicating his imminent departure after 10 trophy-laden years at the club. “I talk with my chairman first,” Guardiola said.

“And after that, when I talk with my chairman, we decide (whether) to have one more year, we talk everything, we will decide.”

Asked whether those conversations will take place after the final match of the season at home to Aston Villa, Guardiola said: “No, we talk in these next days.”

Guardiola, who has won 17 major trophies at City since arriving in English football in 2016, has repeatedly been asked in recent weeks whether he would be staying at City beyond this season.

On Monday, he rolled his eyes when another question was posed about his future and answered: “I’ve said so many times, I have one more year.”

After the Bournemouth game, he said he had wanted to “focus on putting the team in the highest point” before announcing his future plans.

“I’m the happiest man on the planet to be in this club,” he said.

“This club is extraordinary. The season is over for us so we want to arrive in the last game with our fans.”

Manchester City’s head coach Pep Guardiola (R) reacts during the English Premier League match between AFC Bournemouth and Manchester City in Bournemouth, on Tuesday. (PTI)

Guardiola’s time at City has been record-breaking

In overseeing the most successful period in City’s history in his decade in charge, Guardiola has spent longer at the club than he did at Barcelona (2008-12) and Bayern Munich (2013-16).

His biggest achievement at City has been winning the Premier League-Champions League-FA Cup treble in the 2022-23 season, emulating the feat of Manchester United in 1999.

Guardiola’s City team has won the Premier League six times and became the only team in the nearly 140-year history of English football to win four top-flight league titles in a row (2021-24), the first team to earn 100 points in a top-flight season (2017-18), and the first team to win the domestic treble of the league, FA Cup and League Cup in the same season (2018-19).

This season, City has won both the League Cup and FA Cup but will finish second behind Arsenal in the Premier League. That was assured after the 1-1 draw at Bournemouth, which left City four points adrift of Arsenal.

Guardiola has also changed the face of English football in general, bringing a possession-based approach that started with playing the ball out from the goalkeeper or defence that ended up being mimicked across the country, from kids’ teams at grassroots level to rival teams in the Premier League.

Asked Monday if he thought a stand at City’s Etihad Stadium should be named after him, Guardiola said: “The important thing in our lives is when you look back, you can say, ‘Wow.’ You can look with a big smile and (say) that was good.”

“I am pretty sure,” he added, “most of the people who lived this time together can feel that.”

The final years of Guar-diola’s time at City has been under something of a cloud, with the club currently in-volved in a huge legal case with the Premier League.

City was charged by the league in February 2023 with more than 100 financial breaches, including provid-ing misleading information about its sources of income.

The case was heard by an independent commis-sion between September and December in 2024 but no verdict has been reached.

Punishment could be as extreme as expulsion from the top flight. City has al-ways denied the charges and Guardiola has said he is “fully convinced that we will be innocent.” (AP)