Closing in on 1,000 games as a manager, after nine years at Manchester City, following three at Bayern Munich and four at Barcelona, Pep Guardiola could have been forgiven for wanting an easy life.
Aside from his New York sabbatical in 2012/13, the 53-year-old’s life has been dictated by football for as long as he can remember. Most of it has been spent at the highest level, where the pressure is at its greatest and the spotlight its harshest.
So there must have been a pretty sizeable angel on his shoulder telling him now was the time to rest. To leave City, maybe put his feet up for a year, or take the long-anticipated step into the slower pace of international management. Guardiola had plenty of reasons to look at the bigger picture and think it was a good time to part ways. For starters, nobody ever expected him to stay at the Etihad for nine seasons.
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Then there was the forthcoming departure of the club’s director of football, Txiki Begiristain, who will leave this summer. Begiristain has put his retirement off once already, but the summer of 2025 was the time for him to call it quits. Begiristain has been a key figure in Guardiola’s career and laid the foundations at City before his arrival.
Guardiola has never missed the chance to praise his director of football and his impact on the Catalan was clear. “One of the reasons I extended my contract two times is because Txiki is here,” Guardiola said in 2021. He said a “part of my will leave” City when Begiristain’s departure was announced, and as difficult as it might have been for City, it would have been easy for Guardiola to go with him.
Then there is the squad. History makers they may be, treble winners just a couple of years ago, but they are at the point where something of a rebuild is required. Ilkay Gundogan and Kyle Walker are 34, Kevin De Bruyne is 32, both goalkeepers are over 30, and Mateo Kovacic, John Stones, and Bernardo Silva are 30.
Guardiola has begun to refresh the squad in recent years. Phil Foden, Erling Haaland, Josko Gvardiol, Jeremy Doku, Oscar Bobb, Rico Lewis and Savinho are all 24 or under, but work still needs to be done. It would have been easy for Guardiola to leave that to someone else.
Then there is the hearing into the 115 charges the Premier League bought against City. The trial continues in private, and City remain confident they will be cleared, but until that happens, there will be a degree of uncertainty. It would have been easy for Guardiola to wait until the conclusion before deciding on his future.
He didn’t take any of those easy options. There is an argument that this job looks harder now than at any point since his first season in charge, but Guardiola didn’t walk away. He didn’t reflect on a record-breaking, era-defining nine years and decide he couldn’t go again. He did the opposite.
The delirious reaction to the news he is staying shows how much City fans need him, but what isn’t discussed is how much Guardiola needs them and this job. He has fallen for this club, and saying goodbye is proving to be difficult.
And at the end of the day, this wasn’t the right time to do that, not for Guardiola and not for City. Passing on the torch in the summer of 2025 would have been complicated by the Club World Cup, which runs from June 15 to July 13.
By staying, Guardiola allows the incoming director of football Hugo Viana a more straightforward settling-in period, as well as committing to continuing with the rebuilding process in a squad that really has won it all.
Whenever City are criticised by rival clubs or are in the spotlight in the media, Guardiola leaps to their defence. He isn’t doing that because the club pay him handsomely or because his bosses have told him to. He’s doing it because Manchester City is now in his heart.
His decision to walk the hard road now rather than take the easy way out is further evidence of this. Staying now presents more challenges than it did when Guardiola extended his contract in May 2018, November 2020 or November 2022, but there’s nobody better equipped to take those challenges on.
