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Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola spoke in depth about his future as he reassured supporters that he still feels he has unfinished business
Pep Guardiola said he wants to continue at Manchester City for 'as long as possible' as he dismissed fears that he could break his contract at the end of the season. The Catalan has 18 months left on his deal at the Etihad and played down claims that he could leave in summer by suggesting he could still be in place for the 2027/28 season.
Guardiola admitted he had 'done everything' in terms of winning titles but is still excited by working with the players on a daily basis to improve them individually and as a team. The City boss has been clear that the team that grows through the season will win the Premier League, and the Blues are ominously nestled two points behind Arsenal at the top of the table after a ropey start.
While City will continue to prepare for the possibility that he does leave - as the club has done for almost all of the last decade - Guardiola has new challenges to keep him motivated. That is what he says and that is what everyone at the training ground has been saying with the manager refusing to give up last season when the team's form fell off a cliff.
"Last season was a really, really tough season and I didn’t give up and I was there," he said. "This season is much better in terms of many things I’m seeing and still I’m here. It depends on my feelings. My feeling right now is good, that’s why I want to continue.
"It’s going to change? Maybe. I don’t know. But now what I’m feeling now is not [that], what I’m feeling now is with the players I want to continue as much and as long as possible."
Guardiola said when he walked through the Etihad doors in 2016 that he would leave when he could no longer motivate his players, and that principle is still more central to his departure than any trophies or outstanding charges against the club.
While that intangible feeling leaves open the possibility that he could leave at the end of the season - he has previously spoken about needing a rest when he leaves City as well as wanting the challenge of international football - the manager has relished the opportunity to rebuild the team with Rayan Cherki, Nico Gonzalez and Nico O'Reilly and still believes he can get a lot more out of them.
"Of course I want to win the Premier League and the Champions League but that is not the reason why I wake up in the morning," he said. "It’s the process, the journey. Do it better. With the trophy raised high and a parade, we’re happy. Well done Pep. Two days later it’s ‘what’s next?’ It is the process to see the team move along.
"The moment I feel that it is done and with the players I cannot squeeze more – or I can’t visualise how we could do better – then I will go home. Still I have the feeling. I saw Brentford and see one detail where we have to improve. There are things that have happened in the last month that are much, much better. We’ve talked a lot. It made me happy. It makes us score more goals.
"Before it was just Erling scoring and now we have more players scoring goals. The people up front make more assists and more impact. The long balls that we were losing all the time, the second balls… now we are winning more second balls. From there we play more.
"Still our build-up is not good, not good. Still we can play better, have more courage to play. We have many details. Defensively we are not aggressive enough, we’re not doing perfectly what we’re working and talking about. It’s not a regret, I’m not complaining. We still have margin to do it better and when that happens we will be closer."
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