{"id":200522,"date":"2026-05-23T08:27:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T08:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/200522\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T08:27:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T08:27:11","slug":"pep-guardiola-thankful-ahead-of-emotional-manchester-city-farewell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/200522\/","title":{"rendered":"Pep Guardiola thankful ahead of emotional Manchester City farewell"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Spaniard announced on Friday he would be stepping down after the final Premier League game of the season against Aston Villa.<\/p>\n<p>It brings to an end one of the most successful managerial reigns in English football history with Guardiola having won 20 trophies over the past 10 years.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2.76248115.jpg\" alt=\"Pep Guardiola kisses the Premier League trophy\" data-title=\"Manchester City v West Ham United \u2013 Premier League \u2013 Etihad Stadium\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Archive\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Archive\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Martin Rickett\" data-usage-terms=\"EDITORIAL USE ONLY No use with unauthorised audio, video, data, fixture lists, club\/league logos or \u201clive\u201d services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club\/league\/player publications.\"  \/>Guardiola has won 20 trophies with City, including six Premier League titles (Martin RIckett\/PA)<\/p>\n<p>The occasion will be marked by the opening of the Etihad Stadium\u2019s newly-expanded North Stand, which is to be renamed \u2018The Pep Guardiola Stand\u2019 in his honour.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can just say thank you so much to the club for delivering this to me and to my family,\u201d said Guardiola.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy father will come on Sunday, 94 years old, to watch the game. It\u2019s an incredible honour to have his name in this beautiful place.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Guardiola hopes the stand will continue to inspire players after he has left.<\/p>\n<p>He said: \u201cI like to feel that my vibe or my energy will be there forever.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI like that feeling in the bad moments, when someone looks and it says \u2018Pep\u2019, OK I will send good energy for the team, for the club.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2.84607086.jpg\" alt=\"John Stones raises his arm while talking to Bernardo Silva\" data-title=\"Manchester City v Crystal Palace \u2013 Premier League \u2013 Etihad Stadium\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Wire\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Wire\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Martin Rickett\" data-usage-terms=\"EDITORIAL USE ONLY No use with unauthorised audio, video, data, fixture lists, club\/league logos or \u201clive\u201d services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club\/league\/player publications.\"  \/>John Stones, left, and Bernardo Silva, right, are also leaving City (Martin Rickett\/PA)<\/p>\n<p>Guardiola had hoped to sign off by winning the domestic treble but Tuesday\u2019s draw at Bournemouth meant City could no longer catch Arsenal at the top of the Premier League.<\/p>\n<p>Yet there will still be an air of celebration as long-serving players Bernardo Silva and John Stones make their final appearances.<\/p>\n<p>It will also be City\u2019s first home appearance since they added the FA Cup to the Carabao Cup they won earlier in the season, while Villa arrive fresh from winning the Europa League in midweek.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Spaniard announced on Friday he would be stepping down after the final Premier League game of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":["post-200522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}