For Manchester City fans, it was the news they had been praying for. For City’s Premier League rivals, who have watched six of the last seven titles head to the Etihad Stadium, it was a decision they could be forgiven for privately bemoaning.
Pep Guardiola is about to extend his stay with City for at least another year, until the summer of 2026, by which point the man who has already won 18 trophies at the club would have been in charge in the blue half of Manchester for a decade.
For City’s hierarchy, it removes arguably their biggest headache and ensures some crucial continuity at a time when they are about to confront a series of huge challenges on and off the pitch.
Impetus City need to regain their form
City face Tottenham at the Etihad on Saturday on the back of four successive defeats, the first time that has happened during Guardiola’s reign. Trailing league leaders Liverpool by five points but with less than a third of the season played and a four-point cushion to Chelsea in third, they still have everything to fight for. But their manager knows performances and results must improve, and quickly, if his team are serious about a record-extending fifth consecutive league title.
City have not managed more than one goal in each of their past five matches and Spurs have been something of a bogey side for Guardiola. The international break came at a good time with the champions battling an injury crisis, but they have yet to prove they can cope without their midfield metronome Rodri, who is out for the season with a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament.
Guardiola has particular concerns in defence with Ruben Dias, John Stones, Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake having all been battling injuries. Kevin De Bruyne and Jack Grealish are available again but will need to show they can stay fit and find form, while Phil Foden has yet to hit the heights of last season and Ilkay Gundogan has struggled since returning to the club from Barcelona in the summer.
Guardiola’s decision to extend his contract in November 2020 and again two years later had a galvanising effect on the squad and City will hope the same happens third time around.
Is another rebuild on the cards?
Guardiola’s challenge is two-fold. There are nine players in City’s squad who are in their thirties and another three who will hit that milestone next year. Guardiola must motivate that collection of serial winners all over again and hope they still share his hunger and drive for more success. But, even if they rise to that challenge again over the coming months, next summer would appear a logical time for a refresh.
The difference this time around is the manager will not have his friend and trusted ally Txiki Begiristain overseeing any rebuild. City’s long-standing director of football will leave at the end of the season, with Sporting’s Hugo Viana due to take over. City will be relieved they are not losing Begiristain and Guardiola at the same time, mindful of how rivals Manchester United are still to recover from the double blow of losing Sir Alex Ferguson and chief executive David Gill in 2013, but the challenges facing Viana are considerable.
Begiristain admitted in City’s latest documentary charting last season’s title success that the summer of 2023 in the wake of their historic Treble campaign had been “a bit awful for me” with some players thinking they should “get more or new contracts and take the opportunities” and those who did not play in the finals “p—– off and trying to get out of the club”.
Viana is unlikely to have it much easier, even if Guardiola staying will hold major appeal for recruits and could also strengthen any efforts to persuade star striker Erling Haaland to sign a new contract. City are adamant De Bruyne will not leave in January but the Belgium midfielder, 34 in June, has started just 25 of the club’s last 77 matches since limping out of the Champions League final triumph over Inter Milan and may have to be moved on. Gundogan is out of contract in the summer when Kyle Walker, Stones, Bernardo Silva and Ederson are all due to enter the final 12 months of their deals. City have very successfully replaced key stalwarts in the past but it could be an invidious first summer for Viana.
What about the 115 charges?
Guardiola’s new contract does not contain a break clause should City be relegated from the Premier League in the event they are found guilty of financial wrongdoing by an independent commission. A verdict in the landmark legal case dubbed the “trial of the century” is expected in the first few months of next year but Guardiola has not felt the need to await its outcome before deciding his future.
He has consistently urged City’s critics not to rush to judgment before the full facts are known and 12 months ago said he would stay at the club even if they were relegated to League One. City, who deny any wrongdoing, were charged in February 2023 by the Premier League with more than 115 alleged breaches of its regulations and, more recently, have been embroiled in a separate legal battle with the League over associated party transactions.
Guardiola has long maintained that he believes other Premier League clubs want to see City punished and has used that in the past to create something of a siege mentality among his players. Maybe he will do so again. Back in the summer, there were City staff who seemed convinced this would be Guardiola’s last season, that he would struggle to summon the energy to go beyond a ninth campaign in charge. Perhaps the major challenges ahead have stoked fresh fires in him. Either way, City’s rivals are going to have to get used to the sight of him for a good while longer yet.
