Confidence at Manchester City that Guardiola will stay beyond 2023

6 Feb 2022 09:34 GMT
3 min read

Man City boss Pep Guardiola chats to Phil Foden during a Champions League tie with PSG — © ProShots

Pep Guardiola’s contract with Manchester City expires at the end of the 2022/23 season, so the Catalan is already in the final year and a half of his current deal. However, there are many at the Etihad who believe the coach will put pen to paper on a new deal.

“Pep can’t walk away from this,” a source at the club told the Daily Mirror. “He has built a team that can continue to dominate for years. He has it all at City, including working for people who give him the freedom to work how he wants. He doesn’t ever have to compromise. Pep’s intensity to win is the same, but in many ways he seems to have mellowed. He’s happy.”

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Pep can’t walk away from Manchester City.

- Club source, to the Daily Mirror

With Manchester City still dominating English football, with several players having committed to long-term contracts of their own and with Erling Haaland possibly coming to the Etihad too, the Citizens are built to win for the foreseeable future. It would be tough to walk away from this, even if Guardiola will have been at the club for seven seasons by the time the summer of 2023 arrives.

Guardiola’s dream of coaching a national team

The coach spoke about his future in August of 2021, at the Brazilian conference XP Investimentos. "The next step will be to coach a national team, if there is the opportunity,” he said then. “If there is a chance to coach a national team then I think I'd like that. I'd like to coach at a European Championship or Copa America or World Cup. I'd like to experience that."

Those comments were followed by a report in January from The Sun, which claimed that the Netherlands were planning to offer him the chance to coach their national team. Louis van Gaal is currently the boss of the Oranje, but he’ll turn 72 in the summer of 2023 and it could be a good time for Guardiola to inherit that national team dugout.

ESPN presenter Jan Joost van Gangelen, "I have understood from a very reliable source that Pep Guardiola really, really, really really wants to train the Oranje one day."

Guardiola as Netherlands head coach one day.
— Dutch Football 🇳🇱 (@FootballOranje_) July 2, 2021