Pep Guardiola, what now? The end of one era opens the hardest question for Manchester City
Pep Guardiola is once again at the center of the football public, but this time not because of a new tactical invention, a winning run or another final, but because of the question that has hung over the Etihad almost from the moment he extended his contract: what comes after him? According to media reports published ahead of the season finale, the Spanish coach is expected to leave Manchester City after the final Premier League match against Aston Villa, although his contract formally runs until June 2027. As of May 21, 2026, Manchester City had not officially confirmed the separation, and the Reuters agency reported that the club does not comment on speculation. That is precisely why the key wording remains cautious: this is an expected departure reported by several relevant media outlets, but its formal confirmation depends on the club and the coach himself.
If such an outcome is confirmed, one of the most influential coaching periods in the history of English football will come to an end. Guardiola arrived in Manchester in 2016 after spells at Barcelona and Bayern, and under his leadership City became a team that changed the limits of what was expected in the Premier League. According to the club’s own announcement from November 2024, when Guardiola signed a two-year extension, City already had 18 major trophies in his era at that time, including six English league titles and one Champions League. After that, according to a Manchester City announcement, the FA Cup was also won in May 2026 with a victory against Chelsea, while the English Football League reported that City also won the League Cup against Arsenal in March. Thus, according to available data from official and agency sources, Guardiola’s tally at City rose to 20 trophies.
Why the question of departure is open right now
Speculation about Guardiola’s future is not new, but in the final stretch of the season it gained an entirely different weight. Reuters reported via Al Jazeera that his departure is expected after a decade at the club, and The Guardian published that Guardiola informed the Manchester City players of his intention. The same outlet states that the club has already identified Enzo Maresca as a potential successor and that an agreement in principle has been reached on a three-year contract, with open questions connected to his earlier relationship with Chelsea. Since the club has not issued an official confirmation, all information about the successor and the dynamics of the separation should be treated as well-supported media reports, not as a completed institutional process.
The timing in which this story appears further strengthens its importance. Manchester City was ending the 2025/26 season as a team that was still winning trophies, but no longer had the complete control over the Premier League that it had imposed for years. According to the Premier League table on May 21, 2026, Arsenal had 82 points after 37 rounds, and Manchester City 78, which gave the London club an unreachable advantage ahead of the final round. In the same season City, according to the club’s announcement, won the FA Cup with a 1:0 victory against Chelsea at Wembley, while according to the English Football League report it had earlier beaten Arsenal 2:0 in the League Cup final. This means that Guardiola’s possible departure would not come out of a vacuum or a complete sporting collapse, but from a moment in which City is still capable of winning, but no longer looks untouchable.
Such context is important for understanding Guardiola’s career in Manchester. His best teams were measured not only by the number of trophies, but also by the level of control over matches, possession, space and rhythm. City often played football in which the opponent was not only beaten, but also tactically neutralized. But every dominance has its cycle. Players grow older, rivals learn, financial and sporting competition adapts, and a coach who for years demanded maximum mental tension from the dressing room sooner or later reaches the limit to which he can repeat the same message with equal strength.
The era that changed the Premier League
Guardiola’s influence on the Premier League cannot be reduced only to a list of trophies won. According to Manchester City, under his leadership the club became the first men’s team in the history of English football with four consecutive top-flight league titles, and in the 2017/18 season it also became the first team with 100 points in a single Premier League season. In the 2018/19 season the club won all domestic trophies, which City highlighted in its announcement as the first such case in English football. These facts explain why Guardiola in England is not spoken of only as a successful coach, but as a man who changed the standards of play and the organization of a top club.
His City also changed the way people in England talk about positions on the pitch. Full-backs moved inside, center-backs had to build attacks like midfielders, goalkeepers became part of the first phase of possession, and forwards were often measured not only by goals but also by their ability to create space for others. After Guardiola’s arrival, many clubs, from the top to the lower part of the table, began looking for coaches who could play the ball out under pressure, build attacks through a patient structure and turn pressing into a basic defensive tool.
At the same time, the Guardiola era was not a simple story of genius without context. During that period Manchester City had exceptional infrastructure, financial power and continuity of sporting management. Before Guardiola, the club had already been a rising force, but with him it gained a coach who turned that power into an almost industrial production of victories. That is why every honest assessment of his legacy will have to include both: his exceptional expertise and the breadth of resources available to him.
What the arrival of Enzo Maresca would mean
If it is confirmed that Enzo Maresca is Manchester City’s first choice, it would be an attempt to continue the same football culture with a new face on the bench. The Guardian states that Maresca worked as Guardiola’s assistant in the 2022/23 season, in which City won the treble, and that the club is connected with him through an earlier period within City’s structure. Such a successor profile is not accidental. City would not be looking for a complete break with Guardiola’s ideas, but for a coach who understands the club’s language, the dressing room’s habits and the technical demands of a team that was built for years for a specific style of play.
Maresca would, according to the available information, be a logical choice for a club that wants to avoid shock after the departure of a coach who was more than a coach. At City, Guardiola was the architect of the football identity, the person around whom the daily work culture and the standard of excellence were formed. A successor in such a system does not inherit only a squad, but also the expectation that victories are achieved in a way that leaves an impression of control. That is much more demanding than a standard coaching change, because the new man is expected to provide both continuity and his own authority.
But that is exactly where the greatest risk begins. The coach who comes after Guardiola must be close enough to his philosophy not to tear down what was built over ten years, but also independent enough not to become just a pale copy. The history of great clubs shows that periods after long dynasties often bring uncertainty, even when the sporting plan is well prepared. Manchester United after Alex Ferguson is often mentioned as a warning, although City has a different management structure and a clearer decision-making model. Still, not even the best succession plan can replace in advance the authority of a man who determined every detail for ten years.
A team between won cups and a new cycle
Manchester City’s sporting picture in May 2026 is not one-dimensional. On one hand, winning the FA Cup and the League Cup shows that the team still has a winning nerve, squad depth and the ability to win big matches under pressure. Manchester City announced that the FA Cup was won with a 1:0 victory against Chelsea, with a goal by Antoine Semenyo, while the EFL stated in its League Cup final report that Nico O’Reilly brought a 2:0 victory against Arsenal with two goals. Such results confirm that Guardiola’s team is not spent in terms of quality, but that it is in a transitional phase in which old automatisms mix with new names.
On the other hand, losing the title race to Arsenal opens the question of freshness and the depth of the cycle. According to the official Premier League table, City trailed Arsenal by four points one round before the end, even though it had the same goal difference. This suggests that the difference was not a complete drop in level, but in several matches in which the points went elsewhere. In leagues of such quality, small differences often decide the title: a late conceded goal, an injury to a key player, an unused run of home matches or a poorer start to the season. For a club accustomed to turning such details in its favor, even such a relative decline is experienced as a sign that the time has come for reconsideration.
The new coach, whoever it ultimately is, would inherit a team with a strong core, but also with a series of strategic questions. It must be decided how quickly to change the generation, which players to keep as carriers of the culture, and where to open space for younger ones. It must be assessed how much Guardiola’s model can continue without Guardiola, especially at a stage when rivals have been studying his patterns for years. Players who are used to one authority will have to accept a new hierarchy without feeling that the end of one era also ended the ambition.
The unavoidable shadow of the financial procedure
Every analysis of Guardiola’s legacy at Manchester City must also mention the legal and regulatory context in which the club finds itself. In February 2023, the Premier League announced that it had referred Manchester City to an independent commission over a series of alleged breaches of league rules. According to that announcement, the charges relate to several seasons and include issues of financial information, payments and cooperation with the investigation. The club has denied wrongdoing from the beginning, and the procedure is conducted separately from sporting results and Guardiola’s work on the pitch.
It is important to separate two things. Guardiola as a coach will be judged primarily by the play, results, player development and ability to create a winning culture. Manchester City as an institution, however, remains the subject of a broader debate about financial rules, ownership models and the limits of regulation in modern football. Until an official decision is made by the competent body, the charges remain alleged, and the club has the right to a defense. But the very fact that the procedure is ongoing and that it is one of the most important cases in Premier League history means that the context will follow every discussion of City’s dominance.
For Guardiola this is especially sensitive because his coaching greatness is unquestionable, but it developed in an environment that at the same time provoked admiration and criticism. He was not only a beneficiary of a wealthy system; he was also the man who turned that system into a sporting machine of exceptional efficiency. Still, City’s opponents have argued for years that the successes cannot be viewed without questions about financial superiority, squad depth and ownership structure. Because of that, the final historical assessment of the Guardiola era will probably depend both on sporting memories and on the outcome of institutional processes taking place off the pitch.
What now for Guardiola
If he leaves Manchester City, Guardiola will not be a coach lacking offers. But the question is not only where he could work, but whether he wants to work immediately. In the past he has spoken several times about the intensity of the job and the wear that daily work in club football brings, and ten years in the Premier League would represent the longest and most demanding cycle of his career. After Barcelona and Bayern, City was a project in which he stayed long enough to build several different versions of the same team. Precisely for that reason it would not be a surprise if, after leaving the club, he first took a break, although that is not currently officially confirmed.
Speculation about a national-team job has followed Guardiola for years, especially because such a job would bring a different rhythm and less daily pressure than club football. Still, international football requires fewer training sessions, more selection and a different kind of influence, which is not necessarily ideal for a coach who built his career on the daily shaping of details. For now, the fairest thing to say is that Guardiola’s next destination is not officially known.
There is also the possibility that leaving City, if confirmed, would not be the end of his elite club work, but the beginning of one last great project. Guardiola is 55 years old and still young enough for a new cycle, but experienced enough to choose only the conditions that suit him. He will not need to prove himself through just any job. Quite the opposite, the next step will have to make sense in relation to his idea of control, work and legacy.
City after the man who became a system
Manchester City’s greatest challenge will not only be to find a coach who knows the tactical principles of possession, pressing and positional play. There are many more such coaches today precisely because Guardiola changed the football pattern. The real challenge will be to maintain the level of demand when the person who embodied that demand every day disappears. In big clubs structure is important, but dressing rooms still respond to authority, persuasiveness and the coach’s ability to turn a simple message into a shared belief at a key moment.
City has advantages that many clubs did not have after the departure of a great coach. It has strong management, a clearly defined sporting model, a global network and experience in planning several seasons ahead. It also has a team accustomed to the pressure of winning trophies, which is invaluable in a transitional period. But it also has the burden of comparison with a coach who raised the standard so high that even a season with two cups can be seen as a sign of saturation. That is the paradox of the Guardiola era: success became so frequent that normality began to look like decline.
That is why an eventual separation, if confirmed after the league finale, will be more than news about a change of coach. It will be a test of the maturity of one project. Manchester City will have to show whether Guardiola’s system can survive without Guardiola, and Guardiola will have to decide what new ambition means after a decade in which he has already won almost everything. Until official confirmation, there remains room for caution, but football logic already suggests that the Etihad is preparing for a transition that will define the next chapter of English football.
Sources:
- Manchester City – official announcement on Guardiola’s contract extension, trophies won up to that point and club records (link)
- Manchester City – official announcement on the 2025/26 FA Cup victory against Chelsea (link)
- English Football League – report from the 2026 League Cup final between Arsenal and Manchester City (link)
- Premier League – official Premier League table for the 2025/26 season (link)
- The Guardian – report on Guardiola’s expected departure and Enzo Maresca’s possible arrival (link)
- Al Jazeera / Reuters – agency report on Guardiola’s plans and Manchester City’s reaction to media speculation (link)
- Premier League – official 2023 announcement on referring Manchester City to an independent commission over alleged breaches of rules (link)