Thursday, November 21, 2024, 9:16 p.m.
Pep Guardiola will remain at Manchester City. The Santpedor coach will continue to lead the ‘cityzens’ until 2027. Unlike what had been leaked in the last few hours, Guardiola, 53, has not renewed for one season, plus another optional season, but for two. His current contract expired in June of next year and, as he did in 2020 and 2022, his renewal was signed during the month of November.
With this new agreement, if Guardiola fulfills his contract, as has always happened during his career as a coach in his previous ones at FC Barcelona and Bayern Munich, he will not only have been in charge of City for ten years, which he arrived in July 2016. His stay will extend beyond a decade.
«Manchester City means a lot to me. This is my ninth season here; We have lived incredible moments together and I have a very special feeling for this football club,” says the coach on the club’s website where he confesses to being “very happy to stay for two more seasons.” Furthermore, Guardiola thanks the owner, President Khaldoon, Ferran, Txiki, the players and, of course, the fans… everyone who is related to Manchester City for their trust. “It has always been an honor, a pleasure and a privilege to be here.”
Although his future was up in the air, confidence in the project is maximum on both his part and that of the English team. «I have said it many times before, but I have everything a coach could want and I appreciate it very much. Hopefully now we can add more trophies to those we have already won. That will be my goal,” he says.
“Their hunger for improvement and success remains insatiable and the direct beneficiaries of this will continue to be our players and our coaching staff, the culture of our club and English football in general,” said Khaldoon Al Mubarak, president of Manchester City.
18 titles like ‘citizen’
With Guardiola on the Manchester City bench, the club is experiencing the best period in its history. They have won six Premier Leagues, one Champions League, two FA Cups, four Carabao Cups, three Community Shields, one Club World Cup and one European Super Cup.
Since he has been coach of the Etihad Stadium, he has achieved 353 victories in the 490 games he has led the team, which represents a 72% win rate. Furthermore, since its arrival, the ‘cityzen’ team has scored 1,200 goals with an average of 2.45 goals per game.
Guardiola’s renewal comes at one of the coach’s worst moments at the helm of City, since the four-time Premier champion has four consecutive defeats in all competitions (against Tottenham, Bournemouth, Sporting CP and Brighton), the worst streak of Pep as a coach: The latest results have made him fall to second place in the Premier League, five points behind the leader Liverpool.
