Why is Pep Guardiola leaving Man City? Ten years, 20 trophies and the multiple reasons to call time

For a man who has stayed so long, become part of the Premier League furniture, the British sporting landscape and Manchester's wider culture, Pep Guardiola has always felt a bit like he might be leaving.

Speaking at his first City press conference in July 2016, wearing an immaculate grey three-piece suit, he expressed reverence for English football's traditions that made him sound like a man passing through.

"To come to the country which created football and believe you have to change something would be a little bit presumptuous," he said. "I'm not good enough to change everything. To change the mentality of a club of more than 120 years would be presumptuous."

Presumptuous, yes. But he did. He has. Manchester City and English football will never be the same after Guardiola. They will both carry his imprint for a very long time when he leaves the Etihad Stadium dugout for the final time after Sunday's concluding Premier League match against Aston Villa.

Even this season, when the Premier League has been more physical, set-piece dominated and transition-oriented than at any time since Guardiola bent the league to his will with six titles in seven years, the 55-year-old Catalan is the reason. 

MORE: All trophies won by Pep Guardiola in storied coaching career

The present state of English football's post-Pep evolution, beyond the copyists who yielded mixed results (Guardiola has frequently warned that you cannot simply "copy and paste" coaching ideas and hope for success to follow), has been an almost league-wide response to the City manager's signature style being the prevailing one. His old assistant Mikel Arteta is on the cusp of a maiden league title with Arsenal, but only after something of a 'dark side' conversion.

And Guardiola has relished it. Jurgen Klopp's old No. 2 Pep Lijnders and former Arsenal and City defender Kolo Toure have brought new impetus and enthusiasm to the training ground as a young squad, hastily and expensively revamped over the past three transfer windows, has adapted to Pepball.

Getty Images

"The way we pressed this season was different, different ways. To find the perfect comfort on the field, maybe we took more time," he said at a press conference before Tuesday's trip to Bournemouth. The three-piece suit is long gone, currently replaced by a signature Puma hoodie with a giant "P" on the front that strongly brings to mind Alvin from The Chipmunks. This is more relaxed, forthcoming Guardiola, who has come to chuckle through press conferences, giddily fumble punchlines and accuse journalists of using Chat GPT for their research (not guilty!).

"The game this season has been many, many different ways, like never happened before in my career. I always have more or less [changed] one slight detail, but here, we changed more. On the other side, it has been fun. It has been more entertaining, I would say."

Fun, entertaining, relaxed — although not relaxed to the extent he isn't as manically engaged in every kick of every game as he ever was. Games where, through all those changes in personnel and tactical demands, City have emerged with two trophies. They still have an outside chance of sweeping the board domestically. So, why now?

Why is Pep Guardiola leaving Man City?

There are a combination of factors, but the first thing to point out is that Guardiola was never supposed to be here this long. He worked for four years at Barcelona between 2008 and 2012 on rolling one-year contracts. The exhaustion brought about by Camp Nou's entorno led him to take a one-year sabbatical. Then he took the reins at Bayern Munich, cycled through a stack of bold, new tactical schemes, but grew restless in the final year of a three-year contract and agreed to come to City.

In Manchester, his old Barcelona allies Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain, City's CEO and erstwhile sporting director respectively, laid the groundwork for Guardiola. The City Football Academy was set up to be his perfect working environment. There was none of the political ructions that accompanied a Catalan being Barcelona coach or the overly opinionated retired club icons from Bayern. Early in his tenure, Guardiola sought information about the British game from City's great former England winger Mike Summerbee, safe in the knowledge he would not receive unsolicited tactical advice in return.

Guardiola's first contract was for three years and he extended by a further two in May 2018, when City swept to their record-breaking 100-point Premier League title success. This Noah's Ark approach continued, bolting on another two years at a time, although it felt feasible he might have left in 2018/19, had City accompanied their unprecedented domestic treble with a Champions League crown, football completed. Instead, they suffered dramatic heartbreak in a thrilling quarterfinal against Tottenham Hotspur, going out on the now-defunct away-goals rule after Raheem Sterling had a hat-trick and a tie-sealing goal deep into stoppage time ruled out by VAR.

It was not the last time the Champions League would bring Guardiola to his knees at City and there were four more years of yearning until the treble moment in Istanbul. By that point, he'd pipped Jurgen Klopp's formidable Liverpool side on the final day of the Premier League season in 2019 and 2022. The Reds' storming run to rip the title away from City in 2019/20 gave Guardiola something else to prove. He signed a two-year extension in November 2020 as City grappled with the vagaries of COVID-19 football and emerged as a whirling false-nine winning machine.

The November international break became a favourite of Guardiola's when it came to plotting his next move. He penned extensions that month in 2022 and, during the worst on-field crisis of his City career, in 2024. His squad had won a fourth consecutive top-division title in 2023/24 – a feat never previously accomplished in English football – but a couple of uneven summer transfer windows, along with understandable but misguided loyalty to ageing veterans, meant City collapsed in autumn and winter 2024, winning just one of 13 games in all competitions at their prolonged nadir.

Guardiola leaving because of 115? Social media fantasy

At this time, as at any point of turbulence since the Premier League's hefty charge sheet dropped in February 2023, plenty of observers wondered aloud whether 'the 115' was affecting City and their manager. Guardiola has stridently backed his club, which denies all allegations of serious financial wrongdoing, ever since their two-year UEFA ban was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in August 2020.

It feels unfair and deeply unsatisfactory that the interminable wait for a verdict in the Premier League case will persist beyond Guardiola's tenure, but this is not a factor in his decision. The "rat deserting a sinking ship" prognosis is no more than the stuff of social media fantasy. A day-to-day details obsessive and a glacial legal process were never likely to align their schedules.

Guardiola recognised his part in the summer 2024 market misjudgement and endeavouring to make it right was a big motivation for him to sign another two-year renewal until 2027. Over recent weeks, his recited mantra of "I have one more year contract" when asked about his future has come to sound a bit like a man pleading the fifth. He did not want to hand over a bedraggled City to a successor in summer 2025. Now, a retooled playing squad imbued with fresh ideas on the training ground are primed for a new cycle, widely presumed to be under ex-Chelsea boss and Guardiola's 2022/23 treble-winning assistant Enzo Maresca.

The rebuild was initially overseen by Begiristain in January 2025, but with incoming sporting director Hugo Viana also part of the conversations. Begiristain had intended to bow out alongside Guardiola, only for his old friend to decide he wished to go on and on. Viana and Guardiola enjoy a strong and productive working relationship, but it's not Pep and Txiki. It never could be. And so much has changed, beyond the end of Guardiola's most enduring football partnership.

Pep as the last man standing

There's not really anyone left from 2016, aside from his ever-present confident Manel Estiarte. Assistant coaches have moved on, some to fine careers of their own, such as Arteta and Maresca. Guardiola's mentor Juanma Lillo has spent two spells on the coaching staff but left for the last time prior to this season. John Stones was Guardiola's second signing, and the England centre-back's departure means there is no one remaining from the 2016/17 playing squad. Club captain Bernardo Silva following Stones through the exit doors means there is no one left from the 2017/18 'Centurions'. Phil Foden, once Guardiola's teen protege and pet project, is City's longest-serving player by some distance.

The same applies to rivals. The managers filling Premier League jobs look very different to the class of 2016 that Guardiola entered. Plenty of them are there in part due to his influence, both directly and indirectly. His greatest sporting foe, Jurgen Klopp, left Liverpool exhausted in 2024. Guardiola wept in his end-of-season press conference when he paid tribute to the gegenpressing maestro.

There's also a personal element. Guardiola's three children came to Manchester a decade ago; they're now grown up, young adults who have flown the nest. In December 2025, Guardiola separated from his wife and partner of 30 years, Cristina. 

In short, an awful lot of life has happened. A friend of Guardiola told The Sporting News that the coach's inner circle has remained very tight on the precise motivation for his departure. Press conferences over the coming days will shed some light, but only as much as Guardiola wants to let in.

"I don't know the reason. I think it's very personal," they said. "I suppose he's very tired after 10 years. His family is far away; he's been in the same place for 10 years. He's already achieved complete success — he doesn't need to prove anything.

"I suppose all this is what's driving him to say goodbye. Pep doesn't need any more trophies. I think he needs to take a breather, play golf, live a bit, go to the beach. And then, a national team."

Ah yes, a job at a national team. You didn't think we'd get rid of him that easily, did you?