{"id":694993,"date":"2026-05-26T05:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T05:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/694993\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T05:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T05:11:09","slug":"guardiolas-farewell-bash-old-faces-rock-stars-and-a-surprise-from-khadija-shaw-pep-guardiola","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/694993\/","title":{"rendered":"Guardiola\u2019s farewell bash: old faces, rock stars and a surprise from Khadija Shaw | Pep Guardiola"},"content":{"rendered":"

How to top Pep Guardiola\u2019s tearful farewell after Sunday\u2019s final match leading Manchester City<\/a> against Aston Villa at the Etihad Stadium?<\/p>\n

Simple: 24 hours later sell out the Co-op Live next door, that can hold up to 23,500, and move the dial to jubilation and put on a ticker-tape showered show for the departing Catalan that followed the men\u2019s, women\u2019s and youth team\u2019s bus parade in blazing sunshine from the Northern Quarter.<\/p>\n

The entrance alone was box office. As the men\u2019s and women\u2019s team buses arrived and parked either side of the stage, Rodri swigged from a bottle of fizz, and renditions of the \u201cBernardo\u201d, \u201cJohnny, Johnny Stones\u201d, and \u201cWe\u2019ve got Guardiola\u201d songs rang out as the 55-year-old watched \u2013 and laughed \u2013 on.<\/p>\n

\u201cWow\u201d mouthed the Catalan and the club\u2019s slick production even offered a live exclusive as, on-stage, City Women\u2019s Khadija \u201cBunny\u201d Shaw announced she would not be leaving<\/a>, as had been thought \u2013 the WSL\u2019s top-scorer (21 goals in 22 games) in City\u2019s title-triumph was \u201chungry\u201d for more. Instantly the press release regarding a fresh four-year contract landed on correspondents\u2019 phones.<\/p>\n

Khadija Shaw announces she will be staying with Manchester City. Photograph: Nick Potts\/PA<\/p>\n

The main event was just as super-smooth. Txiki Begiristain, City\u2019s former sporting director, brought on the 2017-18 Carabao Cup \u2013 the \u201cone that began it all\u201d.<\/p>\n

This was followed by Vincent Kompany, captain of the same season\u2019s first Premier League title under Guardiola.<\/p>\n

Two down and 18 of the 20 trophies (including three Community Shields) to go, the rest being paraded, too, via a prominent figure connected with each triumph, streamers and sparklers studding each\u2019s arrival on the dais.<\/p>\n

Vincent Kompany brings the Premier League trophy on to the stage at Co-op Live. Photograph: Nick Potts\/PA<\/p>\n

A shy-looking Jack Grealish (loaned last term to Everton) carrying the 2023 Uefa Super Cup drew a particular cheer as did Noel Gallagher with that December\u2019s Fifa Club World Cup.<\/p>\n

All wore the P for Pep clothes line marking his decade leading the club.<\/p>\n

Then, came Guardiola, modestly attired in shorts and T-shirt and after a dig at the fourth estate from the compere, Natalie Pike \u2013 \u201cI bet you\u2019re sick of journalists\u2019 questions\u201d \u2013 the players instead asked the great man a few.<\/p>\n

Pep Guardiola and Noel Gallagher chat on stage at the Co-op Live. Photograph: Nick Potts\/PA<\/p>\n

These included Bernardo Silva asking Guardiola about the infamous clip of him talking tactics and miming the moves to precisely no one alongside him on the bench during the pandemic. And, too, a replaying of a poser from this reporter about \u201csqueaky bum time\u201d (during the 2023-4 title run-in): did he know what this meant? \u201cNo idea,\u201d said Guardiola, to cheers.<\/p>\n

Next, messages from Tommy Fleetwood, Neil Warnock and Michael Jordan. Guardiola, in his honest way, grinned and admitted that he wasn\u2019t sure if Michael Jordan \u201cknows me\u201d but welcomed all the sentiment.<\/p>\n

Erling Haaland, again the Premier League Golden Boot-winner with 27 goals, spoke the Guardiola gospel when he said: \u201cWe\u2019re going to try and keep fighting to win the biggest trophies we can win and I think that we all want to win. I\u2019m going to keep fighting \u2013 it\u2019s a great feeling to win the treble [in 2022-3] \u2013 we\u2019re going to try and win it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jack Grealish brandishes the Uefa Super Cup. Photograph: Nick Potts\/PA<\/p>\n

In summer 2016 Gallagher conducted Guardiola\u2019s first interview so he was asked to do the last one before his departure. At the end, a classy man signed off with four simple words. \u201cThank you so much,\u201d said Guardiola.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How to top Pep Guardiola\u2019s tearful farewell after Sunday\u2019s final match leading Manchester City against Aston Villa at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-694993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}