Pep Guardiola explained in a podcast that he will not coach another club after Manchester City. The only thing that would come into question for the Spaniard would be a position as national team coach.
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- English champions Manchester City are still lagging behind their title aspirations in the Premier League and have once again dropped points. The star ensemble led by goalscorer Erling Haaland had to settle for a 2:2 (1:1) draw at relegation candidates Crystal Palace, who are coached by former Eintracht coach Oliver Glasner.
- City are already eight points behind Liverpool FC, who have also played one game less.
"At some point, the time will come when I feel that enough is enough and then I will definitely stop. I will not take over another team. I'm not talking about the long-term future, but I'm not going to go to another country to do the same thing I'm doing now. I wouldn't have the energy for that. I'm still here, doing what I'm doing today. But the thought of starting somewhere else, with the whole process of training and so on ... no, no, no!" says City coach Pep Guardiola.
But the 53-year-old, who recently extended his contract with the Cityzens until 2027 despite the biggest crisis of his professional career, does not want to quit completely. Because being coach of a national team is something completely different, the Spaniard emphasizes and explains cryptically: "I should stop like the chefs who go to other countries. Stop and think about what we've done well and what we can do better. When you're busy all day, day after day, you don't have time for that. I think it would do me good to stop."
Since arriving in Manchester in the summer of 2016, he has transformed the sheikh-funded club into an absolute footballing powerhouse that has been the undisputed number one on the island and, at times, in Europe in recent years. Guardiola has won the English championship six times with City, most recently four times in a row. That had never happened before in the Premier League.
The highlight was the 2022/23 season, in which Manchester City not only became champions, but also won the FA Cup and the long-awaited Champions League for the first time. The Spaniard brought the Cityzens a total of 18 titles.
Guardiola's recipe for crisis
However, the club has recently endured a negative run like never before in the Guardiola era. "Our mistakes are the result of us not playing the way we should. We normally play so simply. We have to play more simply again. Our strength is on the ball," said the star coach.
Guardiola continued: "Our strength during our successes in the last eight or nine years was that we ran like a desperate team. When we had the ball, we were always incredibly patient. We let the opponent run without making an incredible mistake. At the moment, we're attacking so quickly and not doing a lot of things at the right tempo. We're losing the ball and conceding a lot of goals as a result. And every team is better than us at that."
The Catalan is certain that a "return to the basics" will also bring back self-confidence. Guardiola has not lost faith in his team: "I know that we can play well, even in the situation we have found ourselves in over the last month."
In the Champions League, City are languishing in mid-table and are in danger of missing out on direct qualification for the round of 16. A win for Haaland & Co. against Juventus on Wednesday evening ( live on blue Sport at 9pm) is therefore almost a must.
