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PEP HAPPY TO WAIT ON NEW BLUES DEAL
PEP Guardiola has no imminent plans to discuss a new contract at City. The Etihad hierarchy want to tie their manager down to a new long-term deal - and remain confident he sees himself at the club beyond his current term, which expires in 2019.
But despite claims his agent has been in Manchester to negotiate with City chief executive Ferran Soriano, Guardiola insists any such talks will have to wait.
“Sometimes there is bad information,” he said. “My agent is not in town.
“Was not, is not, will not be in town in the next weeks.”
Guardiola is closing in on his first title at City, with the Premier League leaders needing a maximum of four more wins to be crowned champions.
He has repeatedly claimed he would only sign a new deal if he believed he deserved one.
He is also believed to have informed the club last season that he would require longer than his initial term to fulfil his ambitions.
He will meet with chairman Khaldoon al Mubarak during a break with his squad next week – but any contract discussions are expected to be put on hold until the summer when he will enter the final year of his deal.
CITY will have to overcome Pep Guardiola’s superstitions if they are to beat Stoke and continue their march to the Premier League title.
The Blues have a 16-point lead at the top of the table and the players will be able to happily watch today’s lunchtime kick-off that sees their two closest rivals play each other.
With at least one of United and Liverpool guaranteed to lose points, City could extend further their advantage with victory on Monday.
But despite their position, Guardiola is not looking forward to the trip to the bet365 Stadium.
First, there is Stoke themselves. City may have made light work of their trip to the Potteries last season – the first away game for the former Bayern boss – and thrashed them 7-2 at home, but Paul Lambert’s team concern the manager.
“[Xherdan] Shaqiri, we were together at Bayern Munich, and Joe Allen is exceptional,” he said.
“They are strong with a lot of set-pieces. It’s always a tough game, Stoke City, and the people talk about that before we came.
“We were lucky last season to win still there. When we face teams who are fighting to stay in the Premier League it is complicated.” If that wasn’t bad enough, Guardiola hates Mondays – or at least playing football on them. It may be catching on his players – their only two Monday games this season have been the 1-1 draw with Everton in August and the FA Cup defeat to Wigan. A team that has dominated this year has drawn a complete blank on Pep Guardiola Mondays. They did win all three of their Monday night affairs last season, and Guardiola’s record as Barcelona manager includes a 5-0 thumping of Real Madrid.
For whatever reason, though, the coach just does not like them.
He said: “In Barcelona as well, when we played on Mondays I remember a long time ago it was not good.
“I think against Wigan we lost because we played for 55 minutes with 10 men and we were not precise enough to score.
“I don’t like to play on Monday because the weekend everybody is involved and when the weekend is over, they are like the weekend is over, there are no more games, but we have to play.
“I have bad experiences playing games on Mondays.
“You have to be focused because Stoke away is always complicated, fighting to be in the Premier League.
“I don’t know if the players can be ready, but we are going to work on that these next few days.”