No changing of Guard on Pep’s Blues future

THAT Pep Guardiola’s agent has felt it necessary to give public comment on the City manager’s future shows how much of a talking point it has suddenly become.

A charm offensive with the Italian media, the Blues’ defeat to Liverpool, the subsequent vacuum of Premier League football thanks to international fixtures and Bayern Munich being Bayern Munich have combined to cut through the noise for the first time since some were shouting that Guardiola was joining Juventus back in summer wasn’t.

Anyone looking for signs that the City boss could break the habit of his coaching career and not see out a contract need only look at his first public response to extending his contract at the Etihad until 2021.

Asked in July 2018 about committing his future to the Blues, the coach outlined the reasons why it may not end up being his longest stint in management.

“When we decided to extend the contract, first of all I am comfortable, the second one is the club trust what while he insisted he we are doing,” he said. “Khaldoon [Al Mubarak], Txiki [Begiristain] and Ferran [Soriano] know it depends on results. We have three more years on the contract, but the results will dictate what will happen in the future.

“If we are not able to be consistent and be there to win the title – that’s the most important thing to arrive in April and May and be there for the title – as football trainers we are always in a dangerous position.

“But the family is happy living in Manchester, my experiences of the Premier League are good. I have a young team and I am comfortable working with them.

“But football, when you feel you are tired and the players don’t follow you, even if I have the contact, I will speak with the people about it and we are going to find a solution.

“But I’ll do my best to stay this time together.”

Raising doubts over his contract may have stunned some in the New York hotel room but the two reasons given for an early departure – results not being good enough or players not responding to methods – are both obvious and generic.

On his last point, one of the reasons Guardiola left Barcelona in 2012 was that he felt the players were not responding as effectively to his methods and it is entirely possible the same could happen at City.

However, he – and other close friends – said last year that he was comfortable working with the squad and his agent has this week reiterated his happiness in Manchester.

Other clubs may understandably want to appoint Guardiola and he will inevitably take other jobs after City but the current situation does not appear to have significantly changed since he first signed his extension.