The powerful reason Pep Guardiola wanted to stay at Manchester City
29 November 2024 8:07am GMT
There is a powerful reason why Pep Guardiola decided to sign a two-year contract extension at Manchester City rather than the 12 months that was expected a few weeks ago.
Guardiola cannot leave City like this. He already knew that the squad were in need of renewal – and Telegraph Sport can reveal that was already planned to begin over the next year – but the hope was that the manager could navigate through the choppy waters of another demanding season before it happened.
Despite the current run, which has undeniably developed into a crisis, Guardiola still believes he can. But it was always his intention to leave City in a good place for his successor, whenever that happens, and that means extensive work must be carried out to improve the team. Therefore it also needed him to commit for longer.
Rather like when Sir Alex Ferguson chose to stay on for one more season at Manchester United to be champions again, having seen City win the title with that extraordinary Aguero moment in 2012, pipping United on goal difference, Guardiola simply cannot go.
Two more years is therefore a sign. The unprecedented run for Guardiola, which has been followed by that shocking capitulation to draw 3-3 with Feyenoord in the Champions League, leaving the manager scratching his own face and head, such was his anxiety and frustration, led to him signing a new contract.
These are not the circumstances in which City would have wanted to have Guardiola commit for longer than expected, but they are delighted he has done so. Guardiola signed when that sequence was at four losses, not six, having deliberated right up until he did whether it would be one or two years.
Rare January transfer move planned
It also means the squad renewal will be accelerated with an overhaul beginning in January. City are taking, for them, the highly unusual step of intending to buy in the winter window. Only once before under Guardiola, with Aymeric Laporte in 2018, for a then record £57 million, have the club acquired a player in that month who has immediately gone into the first-team squad.
Now he is keen for them to at least bring in a central midfielder such as Real Sociedad’s Martin Zubimendi – whom Liverpool tried to buy last summer – or possibly Atalanta’s Ederson, to try to plug the gap left by the injured Rodri. There is money available and it would be a surprise if City are not active in the market.
Guardiola believes City have suffered from a perfect storm.
They have left themselves short. Nine players are 30 or over and have been overused. Another three reach that age next year. Guardiola has been loyal and argued that age is only a number but clubs are usually obsessed by age banding – to make sure their squads are not reliant on any one group – and especially when it comes to older players who, like Kevin De Bruyne, inevitably break down or, like Ilkay Gundogan, cannot run as they used to. It is looking increasingly unlikely that De Bruyne will be offered a new deal.
Hindsight is easy but signing only winger Savinho, for £20.9 million, and bringing back 34-year-old Gundogan on a free, while allowing Julian Alvarez to leave, and not replacing him, was simply not adequate. Not given the fixture schedule and demands on elite players such as those at the club. Rodri had warned against player workload – and then tore an anterior cruciate ligament.