Pep Guardiola ‘will leave’ Man City amid Premier League ‘expulsion’ claims as exit date emerges
According to reports, head coach Pep Guardiola has decided to ‘leave’ Premier League champions Manchester City and will not sign a new contract.
The respected Spanish coach has been Man City’s boss since 2016. Under him, the Premier League side have dominated English football over the past eight years and won the Champions League for the first time in their history at the end of last season.
Guardiola to ‘leave’?
During his time at the Etihad, Guardiola has established himself as one of the best managers in Premier League history.
His storied rivalry with Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is coming to an end this season as the German has announced that he will be leaving the Premier League title contenders at the end of this campaign.
Guardiola’s future is also uncertain as his current Man City contract is due to expire in 2025. Speaking at the end of last year, he suggested that he would be open to staying on as head coach beyond the end of next season.
“I have energy. I’m not going to answer,” Guardiola told reporters. “One year and a half is a lot of time in football. I arrived here with long hair and look what happened.”
When asked whether he may extend his contract, Guardiola responded: “Yeah of course – [but I] can leave tomorrow [too].
“I would have loved the team that won 100 points [in the 2017-18 season] to stay eternally. At all the clubs this happens.”
But according to Football Insider’s Pete O’Rourke, Guardiola has decided that he ‘will leave’ Man City in 2025.
The report added: ‘Now, well-placed sources have told Football Insider that the former Bayern Munich and Barcelona manager could take a Jurgen Klopp-like break from management after his lengthy spell with the Premier League champions.’
This news should *obviously* be taken with a pinch of salt at this stage, but it will be interesting to see whether Guardiola loses his appetite for managing in the Premier League once Klopp leaves Liverpool.
This report has emerged a couple of days after it was suggested an ‘expulsion’ was ‘on the table’ if Man City are found guilty of breaching the Premier League’s Financial Fair Play rules.
This claim was made by former Aston Villa and Everton CEO Keith Wyness, who was responding to the reasoning for Nottingham Forest being docked points for breaching Profit and Sustainability regulations.
At the start of 2023, it was announced that Man City had been referred to an independent commission after being accused of breaching 115 Financial Fair Play regulations.
READ MORE: Five Man City post-expulsion steps to seal Prem return include replacing Guardiola, copying Wrexham
Wyness told Football Insider: “For the first time, I’ve noticed the word expulsion cropping up in the report from Nottingham Forest’s hearing.
“City must be noticing that for the first time, as well.
“We don’t know yet, and they’ve got every right to plead the case, but expulsion does seem to be on the table given the severity of what’s supposed to have happened.
“We’re yet to see the evidence, though, and we need to get it going sooner rather than later.”
In November 2023, Man Utd legend Gary Neville explained why he thought Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou could eventually replace Guardiola.
“Spurs fans won’t like this, but he is amazing and if you’re Manchester City losing Pep Guardiola in a year or two you’ll be looking at Ange Postecoglou thinking, ‘wow, that’s exactly what we want to see’,” Neville told Sky Sports.
“But for the time being, Spurs have got to enjoy him. They’re not going to potentially finish in the top four, but they might finish in the top four, there’s one place probably up for grabs.
“But what they can do is enjoy one of the best brands of football I’ve seen since I’ve finished playing football. I love watching Tottenham play, and that hasn’t always been the case over the last few years.”
