Pep Guardiola’s signing of a new one-year deal at Manchester City’s manager shows the eye of the tiger with this son of Catalonia. For Apollo Creed’s line to Rocky Balboa in Rocky III that “you had that eye of the tiger, the edge, and now you gotta get it back”, read Guardiola’s desire to see off the copious challenges gnawing at his team and club and prove, again, his genius.
The reasons why he could have chosen to walk next summer may be the same that have replenished his will to stay. Either way, the 53-year-old’s decision comes at an intriguing juncture of an era‑defining eight-and-a-half-year reign.
Guardiola’s empire is threatened on several fronts. He has just overseen the first four-game losing streak of a gilded coaching career, a shaky start that threatens City’s tilt at a record fifth consecutive Premier League title. The run has also dumped them out of the Carabao Cup and includes the 4-1 humbling at Sporting in their most recent Champions League outing.
Next we move to the Premier League’s case against the club over financial wrongdoing, which is being heard by an independent commission and involves 100-plus counts. City deny wrongdoing but if found guilty could be relegated from the top flight.
Guardiola has no break clause and is in charge of a squad that may require significant turnover given that 12 players will be 30 or more by mid-September: Manuel Akanji, Jack Grealish, Nathan Aké (all 30), Mateo Kovacic, Bernardo Silva (31), John Stones, Ederson, Stefan Ortega (32), Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gündogan (34), Kyle Walker (35) and Scott Carson (40). De Bruyne, Gündogan and Carson will depart next summer unless they, too, agree new contracts.
Beyond that group, Rodri and Kalvin Phillips will by then be 29, Rúben Dias 28 and Matheus Nunes 26. The 25-or-under contingent contains Erling Haaland, Savinho, Josko Gvardiol, Rico Lewis, Phil Foden, Jérémy Doku, Oscar Bobb, Jahmai Simpson-Pusey, Nico O’Reilly, James McAtee, Josh Wilson-Esbrand, and Máximo Perrone.
In agreeing to occupy the City hot seat into a 10th year (at least), Guardiola thumbs his nose at the above and the pending departure of his close friend Txiki Begiristain as sporting director in June has also not proved an existential threat to his occupancy.
Guardiola’s extension provides a welcome fillip in the push to arrest City’s losing sequence. This will not have been a prime consideration – Guardiola will have analysed the vital signs of his desire, intensity and energy levels – but the deal is a certifiable immediate boost, and dark news, of course, for the competition.
The City machine was listing for the first time since Guardiola’s opening season (his sole trophyless one) but he now prepares for Saturday’s league visit of Tottenham with players who have clarity that the man they trust inherently will be calling the shots for the next year and a half. After the losses to Tottenham (2-1, Carabao Cup), Bournemouth (2-1, league), Sporting and Brighton (2-1, league), Haaland, De Bruyne, Silva, Ederson et al will have a new spark when driving into training at the Etihad Campus.
In his early phase at City, Guardiola would say he could not imagine staying beyond the three years of his first contract. This was because four seasons at Barcelona, from 2008-12, had left him exhausted and requiring 12 months out before taking charge of Bayern Munich. Three years there were enough before, tired of the internal politics, he switched to City.
That Guardiola has not endured the same in east Manchester and stayed for so long illustrates how comfortable he feels. Here we see how the club have done an expert job of accommodating him. The hiring of Begiristain (in October 2012) and Ferran Soriano (in September 2012, as the chief executive), after each held similar positions at Barcelona, was the key move by Khaldoon al-Mubarak, the chairman, to prime the club for Guardiola’s arrival.
When Guardiola did so four years later, Mubarak’s master plan moved on to furnishing him with the players needed to construct the City that have dominated. There was a serious misstep in the opening year, as the full-backs Pablo Zabaleta, Gaël Clichy (each 31) and Bacary Sagna (33), and the technically limited Aleksandar Kolarov, were not replaced and City, after 10 victories from the first 10 matches in all competitions, finished third, on 78 points, 15 behind the champions, Chelsea. The lack of silverware caused Guardiola to be questioned.
Mubarak, Begiristain and Soriano moved in summer 2017 to remedy this via £120m-plus splurged on three full-backs – Kyle Walker, Benjamin Mendy and Danilo – and the following season City were champions and League Cup victors.
Seven years later, Guardiola’s honours at City read: six Premier League titles, one Champions League, four Carabao Cups, two FA Cups, the Uefa Super Cup and the Fifa Club World Cup. He is the Premier League’s longest-serving incumbent and second in England’s top four divisions.
By the end of this contract Guardiola will be 55. Previously, he has almost scoffed when asked about reaching anywhere near the 22 years Arsène Wenger spent at Arsenal or the 26 and a half Sir Alex Ferguson had at Manchester United. But do not bet against him signing on again.
Twelve months from now, keep an eye out, because the extension agreed this week is a third in a row that has occurred in November.
