Manchester City head coach Pep Guardiola is set to speak with chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak about his future at the club
Pep Guardiola and Khaldoon Al Mubarak celebrate the last time Manchester City won the Premier League(Image: Michael Regan/Getty Images)
Between now and Sunday’s Premier League finale against Aston Villa, Manchester City head coach Pep Guardiola said he will sit down with the club’s chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak to discuss his future. After losing the Premier League title race on Tuesday night, Guardiola was quizzed heavily on what will happen next.
“With the club, I always talk but not now,” he explained. “When it was three, four seasons ago, when there was one year left I should talk with my chairman first. When I talk with my chairman, we decide [whether] to have one more year and we talk everything will [be] decide[d].”
Guardiola has always maintained a strong relationship with Al Mubarak, regularly praising the 50-year-old. When City announced they would be freezing ticket prices in April, the boss said: “Hats off to my chairman and CEO. This business, it does not work without the fans. Our club financially needs to have the resources to buy the best possible and continue to pay players but when the club can find another way, the situation in the world is difficult and not increasing the tickets means a lot. How special is this club.”
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That feeling has been reciprocated by Al Mubarak. In 2024, the first time Guardiola’s future was in serious doubt, the City chairman remained calm about the situation.
“With Pep, we’ve had this conversation many times before over the years of the contract,” Al Mubarak explained. “Pep has always been fully committed to this club, fully committed to every contract he’s signed with us.
“The decision on his future is always a decision we take together, and I have no doubt we will find, as we always have done, the right solution that works for Pep and works for us.”
He added: “It’s hard to put into words what Pep has given this organisation, this club. You can look at just records for history’s sake, and there I think he’s racked up almost every record in the book… But also beyond that, I think what his impact has been on football.
“English football has changed with the evolution to the type of football that Pep has brought in to the league.”
Of course, a deal was reached with Guardiola to extend his stay for a further two years. The 2024/25 season did not go the way City expected though. The Blues struggled and finished the campaign with just the Community Shield to their name.
Despite the disappointment, Al Mubarak said of Guardiola: “We have trust, and it goes both ways, I think,” the chairman said on their working relationship. He trusts us. He trusts me. He trusts the organisation. He trusts the club and we trust him.
“And that trust is what, in the good times, allows you to keep winning and in the tough times that’s where that trust really shows up. It [the season] was not easy for him professionally. It was not easy for him personally.”