Why did Guardiola leave Manchester City? Ten years, 20 trophies and multiple reasons for ending time originally appeared on The Sporting News. Click here to add Sports News as your go-to source.
For someone who has stayed so long, who has become part of the Premier League furniture, the British sporting landscape and Manchester’s wider culture, there was always the feeling that he might be leaving.
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Speaking at his first Manchester City press conference in July 2016, wearing an immaculate gray three-piece suit and expressing such reverence for English football tradition, he sounded like someone just passing by.
“It’s a bit presumptuous to come to the country that created football and believe you have to change something,” he said. “I am not enough to change everything. To change the mentality of a club with more than 120 years of history is presumptuous.”
Presumptuously, yes. But he did it. He has. Manchester City and English football will never be the same after Guardiola. When he leaves the dugout at the Etihad Stadium for the final time after Sunday’s Premier League tie against Aston Villa, they will all be leaving his mark for a long time to come.
Even this season, the Premier League is more physical, set-piece dominant and transition-oriented than at any time since Guardiola’s sixth title in seven years, and the 55-year-old Catalan is why.
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More:All the trophies Pep Guardiola won during his legendary coaching career
The current state of English football’s post-Pep evolution, apart from copycats who have produced mixed results (Guardiola has often warned that you can’t simply “copy and paste” a coaching philosophy and hope for success to follow), is an almost league-wide reaction to the Manchester City manager’s signature style becoming mainstream. His old assistant Mikel Arteta is on the verge of winning his first league title with Arsenal, but only after undergoing something of a “dark side” transformation.
Guardiola is happy with this. Jurgen Klopp’s No. 2 Pep Lijnders and former Arsenal and Manchester City defender Kolo Toure have brought new energy and enthusiasm to the training ground as a young squad that has undergone a hasty and expensive revamp over the past three transfer windows has come to terms with Pebor.
Manchester City
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“The way we press is different this season, a different way. To find the perfect comfort on the pitch, maybe we spend a little more time,” he told a press conference ahead of Tuesday’s trip to Bournemouth. The three-piece suit is long gone, replaced by the iconic Puma hoodie with a giant “P” on the front, strongly reminiscent of Alvin from The Chipmunks. This is a more relaxed, on-the-go Guardiola, giggling at press conferences, dizzyingly fumbling for punchlines, and accusing reporters of using Chat GPT for research (guilty free!).
“There are many, many different ways to play this season, which has never happened in my career. I’ve always had more or less [changed] A small detail, but here we changed it even more. On the other hand, it’s fun. I’d say it’s more interesting. “
Fun, entertaining, relaxed – though not to the point where he’s not as maniacally involved in every kick in every game as he once was. Through all these changes in personnel and tactical requirements, City won two trophies. They still have a chance to sweep the market domestically. So why now?
Why did Guardiola leave Manchester City?
This is the result of a combination of factors, but the first thing to point out is that Guardiola should not have been here for so long. He worked at Barcelona for four years between 2008 and 2012 on a one-year rolling contract. Fatigue brought by Camp Nou entorno This resulted in him taking a year off. He then took over at Bayern Munich and introduced a series of bold new tactical plans, but grew restless in the final year of his three-year contract and agreed to move to Manchester City.
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In Manchester, the groundwork for Guardiola was laid by his old Barcelona allies Ferran Soriano and Siki Begiristain, who are City’s chief executive and former sporting director respectively. City Football Academy was established to provide him with the perfect working environment. None of the political turmoil that comes with a Catalan being Barcelona coach or an overly opinionated retired club icon from Bayern. Early in his tenure, Guardiola sought information about the English game from Manchester City’s great former England winger Mike Summerby, knowing he would receive no unsolicited tactical advice in return.
Guardiola’s first contract lasted for three years and was extended for a further two years in May 2018 as City swept past a record-breaking 100-point Premier League title. This Noah’s Ark approach continues, for two years at a time, although he may leave in the 2018/19 season, should City accompany their unprecedented domestic treble with the Champions League. Instead, they suffered dramatic heartbreak in a thrilling quarter-final tie against Tottenham Hotspur, crashing out under the now-defunct away goals rule after Raheem Sterling’s hat-trick and a stoppage-time equalizer were ruled out by VAR.
It wouldn’t be the last time Guardiola succumbed to City in the Champions League, having craved a treble-winning moment in Istanbul for four more years. By then, he had already beaten Jurgen Klopp’s mighty Liverpool sides on the final day of the 2019 and 2022 Premier League seasons. The Reds’ ferocious attack to snatch the title from Manchester City in 2019/20 has given Guardiola something else to prove. He signed a two-year contract extension with Manchester City in November 2020 as they grappled with the vagaries of COVID-19 football and became a spinning false nine-win machine.
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The November international break became a favorite for Guardiola to plan his next move. He signed contract extensions that month in 2022 and in 2024 during the worst on-field crisis of City’s career. His side won a fourth consecutive top-flight title in 2023/24 – a feat never accomplished before in English football – but several imbalances in the summer transfer window, combined with an understandable but misguided loyalty to aging veterans, meant City collapsed in the autumn and winter of 2024, winning just one of their 13 games in all competitions. Long term low.
Guardiola leaves for 115? social media fantasy
At this point, as in any tumultuous period since the Premier League’s massive fine was withdrawn in February 2023, many observers are wondering aloud whether “115” is affecting City and their manager. Guardiola has strongly supported his club, which has denied all allegations of serious financial misconduct, since the Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned the club’s two-year UEFA ban in August 2020.
It feels unfair and deeply unsatisfactory that the interminable wait for a verdict in the Premier League case will continue beyond the end of Guardiola’s tenure, but it was not a factor in his decision. Predictions of “rats abandoning a sinking ship” are nothing more than social media fantasy. An obsession with day-to-day details and a cold legal process could never make their schedules align.
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Guardiola’s recognition of his role in the market misjudgment of the summer of 2024 and his efforts to correct it was a major motivation for his two-year contract extension until 2027. The mantra he recited in recent weeks when asked about his future, “I’ve got one more year on my contract,” sounded a bit like a guy pleading for a fifth contract. He does not want to hand over a dirty City to his successor in the summer of 2025. Now a revamped squad is filling the training ground with new ideas, ready for a new cycle and is widely expected to be led by former Chelsea boss and Guardiola’s 2022/23 treble-winning assistant Enzo Maresca.
The rebuild was initially overseen by Begiristain in January 2025, but incoming sporting director Hugo Viana was also involved in the conversation. Begiristain had originally planned to quit with Guardiola, but his old friend decided to press on. Viana and Guardiola have a strong and productive working relationship, but the same cannot be said for Pep and Tessicki. It can never be. Aside from the end of Guardiola’s most enduring football partnership, a lot has changed.
Pep is the last man standing
After 2016, there was virtually no one left, apart from the ever-confident Manel Estiarte. Assistant coaches have left, some of whom went on to great careers of their own, such as Arteta and Maresca. Guardiola’s mentor Juanma Lillo was on the coaching staff twice but left before this season for the last time. John Stones was Guardiola’s second signing and the England centre-back’s departure means there is no one left in the squad for the 2016/17 season. Club captain Bernardo Silva followed Stones out of the exit, meaning there was no one left for the 2017/18 Centurion. Phil Foden was once Guardiola’s protege and favorite as a teenager and is, by some accounts, City’s longest-serving player.
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The same applies to competitors. The managers filling Premier League positions look very different to the class of 2016 that Guardiola entered. Many of them owe their existence in part to his direct and indirect influence. His biggest sporting rival, Jurgen Klopp, left Liverpool exhausted in 2024. Guardiola was in tears as he paid tribute to Klopp at his end-of-season press conference. genetic stress master.
There are also personal factors. Ten years ago, Guardiola’s three children came to Manchester. They are grown up now, young adults who have flown out of the nest. In December 2025, Guardiola separated from his wife and partner of 30 years, Cristina.
In short, a lot happens in life. A friend of Guardiola’s told Sporting News that the coach’s inner circle remains very nervous over his exact motivations for leaving. Press conferences in the coming days will reveal some clues, but only what Guardiola is willing to reveal.
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“I don’t know why. I think it’s very personal,” they said. “I think after 10 years he must be very tired. His family is far away and he has been in the same place for 10 years. He has been completely successful – he doesn’t have to prove anything.
“I think all this is what prompted him to say goodbye. Pep doesn’t need more trophies. I think he needs to take a break, play golf, live a little bit, go to the beach. Then, the national team.”
Ah yes, working with the national team. You didn’t think we could get rid of him that easily, did you?
