According to numerous reports from across the pond, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola is expected to part ways with the team at the end of the season.
Per sources, multiple players and staff have privately confided that they expect the long time head coach to leave once the 2025-26 campaign officially wraps up. Despite being under contract through 2027, the 55 year old has been non-committal about his future with the club beyond the current season.
City face a must win game on Tuesday against Bournemouth in order to keep their Premier League title hopes alive. As a result, management has declined to provide any updates regarding their coach over the last few weeks, replying simply “nothing has changed” when asked by reporters.
Guardiola has spent the last 10 years with Manchester City, putting on one of the most dominant runs in recent soccer history. With the team’s 1-0 victory over Chelsea in the FA Cup on Saturday, the veteran manager has now brought home 20 trophies since joining the club.
So large has been Pep’s impact, that the club has plans in the works to rename a section of the stands at the Etihad in honour of their longtime coach. Unlike other Premier League clubs who have cycled through numerous head coaches in the span of a single season, Manchester City has been the poster child for consistency over the last decade.
After joining the club in the summer of 2016, Pep’s sides have gone 416-86-89 for a win percentage of better than 70%. The team has earned 6 Premier League titles, 3 FA Cups, 5 EFL Cups, 3 FA Community Shields, a Champions league title, as well as a Club World Cup title amongst the other pieces of hardware they’ve brought in.
Replacing him will be no small task, but reports seem to indicate that the club does have a “Plan B” if Pep does indeed walk away at season’s end. Former Guardiola assistant Enzo Maresca is believed to be on a short list of candidates to replace Pep, and would be the closest thing to a smooth transition that’s currently on the market.
While his future remains up in the air, the team will need to refocus on the task at hand as they’ll face Bournemouth at 2:30pm ET in a game they cannot lose or tie should they wish to keep their slim title hopes alive against Arsenal.
Photo: Luis Antonio Rodríguez Ochoa. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.