'He has' - What Man City coaches think about Pep Guardiola future

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was not in the dugout on Saturday and some claim he will permanently leave in 2026.

Pep Guardiola's No.2 believes the Manchester City manager has no limits to his ambition as he looks to move one step closer to a fifth League Cup title. The Blues head to Newcastle for the first leg of their semi-final buoyed by a 10-1 demolition of Exeter in the FA Cup.

Guardiola watched the game from the stands as he served a one-match ban for picking up three yellow cards this season, and the question of when he will permanently leave the City dugout has again been raised. Recent reports claimed that the Catalan could walk away at the end of the season despite his contract running until 2027.

Pep Lijnders was brought in back in summer to help boost Guardiola by refreshing his backroom staff, arriving with a formidable CV that includes assisting Jurgen Klopp in Liverpool's epic battles with City over the past decade. He arrived with Kolo Toure and James French, and was praised recently by Guardiola after the Nottingham Forest game for in-game tweaks that saw them pick up an important three points.

The 42-year-old did not let standards slip against Exeter with a relentless performance that brought ten goals, and did not hesitate afterwards when asked about the hunger that Guardiola possesses. "The ambitious ones - they don't have limits," said Lijnders. "And he has passion and ambition."

Guardiola will be back in charge at St. James' Park on Tuesday - a stadium City lost in last November in the Premier League - when City can move one game from Wembley if they can pick up a good result against the defending champions of the Carabao Cup. With the second leg not until early February, City are looking for a strong performance on the road to put them in a position for this new squad to start winning trophies - and see Guardiola pass Sir Alex Ferguson and Brian Clough to stand alone with five League Cup triumphs.

"You have players who have won everything - you have Rodri, Bernardo, Ruben, all these guys. Gigio last year won the big one," said Lijnders. "It always helps when you reach finals and get into difficult games. We want to play as many games as possible this year. Give us the most difficult games because with this we can improve.

"It would be unbelievable to go to Wembley - I always feel that especially at the beginning of the season, it's like a trampoline. Everybody is playing, everybody is involved. Everybody knows the next game because of now it's the semi-final of the League Cup and it's the one leg away and we have to put ourselves in a good position to take them back home.

"There's a long time between the two so that's really strange by the way. And then we want to go to Wembley because we all know that stadium, the history of this club with the League Cup as well. So we want to do that again.

"For players it's always like this to gain confidence, to win big games. It's going away to Real Madrid and winning there. It's going to Newcastle and trying to get a good result. We will try that."