Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
GUARD OF HONOUR
City chief: Pep WILL NOT walk out early on City contract
PEP GUARDIOLA will NOT bail out on his Manchester City contract this summer – no matter how bad this season gets.
City’s Premier League title defence is already in tatters after Friday’s astonishing collapse and the defeat at Wolves.
But Etihad chief executive Ferran Soriano insists that Guardiola will honour his current deal and stay on, even if the campaign ends in failure.
Guardiola’s future became
shrouded in doubt when Sunday Mirror Sport revealed in September that the Catalan’s wife had returned to live in Barcelona.
We also revealed that the contract extension he signed last year – taking him to 2021 – might include a break clause that could be triggered at the end of this season.
But with City’s title defence in ruins following the 3-2 defeat at Wolves, Etihad chiefs have been quick to insist that Guardiola is going nowhere.
Soriano, speaking at the Dubai International Sports conference, said: “Pep has said so many times that he has a contract that covers this year, plus next year too – there is no discussion about this.
“Pep will stay and he’ll leave at the right time one day – and the club is strong enough to survive any change.
“But as Pep said many times, he’s not leaving.”
Guardiola has tried to play down talk about his future by claiming he would be open to signing a new contract. But he then admitted that results would determine his fate.
Soriano (above) believes City were always going to suffer a drop off in consistency after winning back-to-back titles with a total of 198 points.
He added: “I would say that what’s happening is normal. What’s not normal is what happened in the last two years, where Manchester City got 198 points in two seasons.
“The Premier League is very competitive. Any team can win against any team.
“We’re not happy with the amount of games that we have lost, but that’s the nature of football and of this competition.”