Pep Guardiola will leave Manchester City at the end of the season after a decade in charge, the club announced this Friday, bringing an end to one of the most successful eras in English soccer and one of the most \u200binfluential managerial reigns of all time.<\/p>\n
The departure of the 55-year-old Catalan coach will close the book on a remarkable chapter that has seen \u200cCity transform into a footballing juggernaut.<\/p>\n
Guardiola, who took charge of City in 2016, has won six Premier League titles including four in a row three FA Cups, five League Cups and the Champions League, but his side have not won the league in two years.<\/p>\n
“Don’t ask me the reasons I’m leaving. There is no reason, but deep inside, I know it’s my time,” Guardiola \u200bsaid in a statement.<\/p>\n
“Nothing is eternal, if it was, I would be here. Eternal will be the feeling, the people, the memories, the love \u200bI have for my Manchester City.<\/p>\n
“We worked. We suffered. We fought. And we did things our own way. Our way.”<\/p>\n
Although City \u2060sealed the domestic cup double this season, Guardiola saw his dreams of a seventh Premier League crown dashed when they drew 1-1 at Bournemouth on Tuesday to hand Arsenal \u200bthe title, with City set to finish second.<\/p>\n
His final game in charge is Sunday’s home fixture against Aston Villa before he takes on the role of Global Ambassador in the \u200bCity Football Group, giving technical advice to clubs in the group.<\/p>\n
City also announced the expanded North Stand at the Etihad Stadium will be named the Guardiola Stand while a statue that will feature on the approach to the stand will be commissioned.<\/p>\n
Guardiola had arrived in Manchester with a resume already stuffed with silverware from Barcelona and Bayern Munich, taking over from Manuel \u200bPellegrini in July 2016.<\/p>\n
After inheriting a successful club financed by the Abu Dhabi United Group, Guardiola will walk away having built a footballing empire after overseeing a \u200bparadigm shift in Premier League tactics.<\/p>\n
As Guardiola faced the challenge of adapting to England’s famously fast-paced and physical league, possession became an art form and a defensive tool at City as \u200chis teams \u2060craved complete control.<\/p>\n
The result was not just utter dominance evidenced by record-breaking campaigns like the 100-point 2017-18 season with 106 goals scored but also relentless consistency year after year, including a record four league titles in a row.<\/p>\n
Guardiola’s squads set new standards, forcing other teams to evolve, while City’s financial muscle combined with shrewd signings such as the much sought-after striker Erling Haaland helped deliver the treble in 2022-23.<\/p>\n
However, the spectre of the 115 charges of alleged breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules \u200blooms large over his tenure at the \u200bclub.<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":23577,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-35156","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The departure of the 55-year-old Catalan coach will close the book on a remarkable chapter","published_date":"","news_description":"The departure of the 55-year-old Catalan coach will close the book on a remarkable chapter","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35157,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35156\/revisions\/35157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=35156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}