Man City put pressure on Pep Guardiola over quit claims

Robin Bairner

• 6 Apr 2026 04:30 CDT
• 5 min read

News

Manchester City have instructed Pep Guardiola to tell them formally whether he intends to remain at the club beyond the summer amid claims the Spaniard could resign at the end of the season.

Speculation has long dogged the Catalan’s future at City, and this is reaching fever pitch as the end of the campaign approaches, with reliable sources claiming that he plans to quit.

Guardiola has not publicly commented on his future, and even behind the scenes at City there is no clarity over what his plans are. This is something that the Premier League side intends to change in the coming days.

Man City want to know Guardiola’s plans

Man City have approached Guardiola to understand whether he plans to see out the final year of his contract at the Etihad Stadium, according to TalkSport.

The 55-year-old manager has been extremely guarded over his decision and even senior figures at the Premier League giants don’t know what he plans to do when the season ends. They had hoped that the issue would have been resolved during the international break, but it appears this has not been the case.

City want to retain their long-serving manager for the duration of his deal and have no plans to see him depart.

However, there is an understanding that if Guardiola does want to leave the club, they will have to start planning for the summer. This means formalising potential replacements – with Enzo Maresca understood to be high up the list – but also making provisions for the summer transfer window.

Nottingham Forest’s Elliot Anderson is among the players thought to be factoring Guardiola’s future into their thinking ahead of the summer.

Man City have come up short

City have enjoyed another solid campaign under Guardiola but fell short in the Champions League and face an uphill challenge to claw back a nine-point deficit in the Premier League to Arsenal.

They won the Carabao Cup and are into the semi-finals of the FA Cup after a 4-0 win over Liverpool, but these are comparatively minor objectives for a club that has grown used to winning the biggest titles.

Guardiola has won 19 trophies at the Etihad Stadium, including the Premier League on six occasions.

Guardiola has never been sacked

Guardiola has a remarkable record in management in that he has never been sacked from a role in his 19-year career. Regardless of how he ultimately exits Man City, this looks likely to remain intact.

He stepped down after four highly successful seasons at Barcelona, citing the need to take a break, then quit Bayern Munich after three trophy-filled years.

When Guardiola took the Man City job in 2016, the expectation was that he would spend three or four years before quitting. It is something of a surprise that he remains in place nearly 10 years later, particularly as he often speaks of the dangers of managerial burnout.

“Do you know what it means in football to have a two-year contract for managers? It's an eternity!” he told Sky Sports (via Reuters) last May.

What next for Pep?

Guardiola has already revealed that he expects to take a break after leaving City.

“I'm not talking about the long-term future, but what I'm not going to do is leave Manchester City go to another country, and do the same thing as now,” he told Dani Garcia on YouTube (via BBC Sport).

“I wouldn't have the energy. The thought of starting somewhere else, all the process of training and so on. No, no, no. Maybe a national team, but that's different.

“I want to leave it and go and play golf, but I can’t if I take a club job. I think stopping would do me good.”

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