‘Chairman not happy at 21-point gap to Liverpool’

Pep Guardiola has admitted he will be under pressure to win back the Premier League title next season after revealing that the club’s chairman, Khaldoon Al-mubarak, was “not happy” about how far they had fallen behind Liverpool.

City trail Liverpool by 21 points after surrendering the championship to the Merseyside club last month and Guardiola conceded Almubarak was not impressed and that talks were under way about how best to plug the gap next term.

“I’m critical of my club. Internally, when I don’t like something I say to my chairman,” the City manager said. “[But] my chairman is not happy with me. We finished 21 points behind Liverpool. He’s not happy with me, but we discuss internally to try and do better next season, to convince them but always on the pitch.”

Despite Al-mubarak’s displeasure at the league campaign, City – who have already won the League Cup – can secure another “treble” of trophies this season by lifting the FA Cup and Champions League and the club hope to persuade Guardiola to sign an extension to his contact, which expires next summer.

Guardiola insisted he “loves” City and that “maybe I will be able to stay here longer”, but he said he wanted to wait until the end of the season before discussing his future with the club’s hierarchy.

“Now is not the time,” he said. “We have an incredible month in front of us, then one year, which for a manager is a long, long time. The decisions we thought before the [Cas] sentence are quite similar to now. I was happy before and now. We have time to talk about this.

“This club is incredibly solid with Pep and without Pep, so don’t be troubled. This club had success before my arrival, with [Roberto] Mancini and [Manuel] Pellegrini, they won a lot of titles and played good football.

“So without me, when I leave – and I don’t know when that will be – the structure of the club wants to grow and to be solid.”