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Pep Guardiola agrees two-year Manchester City contract extension

By The Athletic
Football News Pep Guardiola agrees two-year Manchester City contract extension
NOV 22, 2022 LISTEN

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has agreed a two-year contract extension committing him to the club until 2025.

The deal will be structured as an initial one-year deal, with both club and manager holding an option for a further season. That means either party could choose to end it sooner if they wanted. The structure is the same as the contract he signed in November 2020.

His existing deal ran until the end of this season.

Guardiola, 51, joined Manchester City in 2016 after spells in charge of Barcelona and Bayern Munich.

He has since won four Premier League titles with Manchester City, as well as one FA Cup and the League Cup four times.

City also reached the Champions League final in 2020-21, which they lost 1-0 to Premier League rivals Chelsea.

City have made a strong start to the current campaign. Guardiola’s side sit second in the Premier League table, five points behind league leaders Arsenal.

They have qualified for the knockout stage of the Champions League — they take on Bundesliga side RB Leipzig in the round of 16 — and are through to the fourth round of the EFL Cup after beating Chelsea.

Guardiola said earlier this month that he considered it unlikely he will find a better club to manage than Manchester City — raising expectations that he would extend a contract due to expire in 2023.

He said: “(Would I) stay in another place for seven years? No, I don’t think so. It is difficult to find what I have here as a manager.

“To be a manager for a long time you need to be so supported. The results help a lot, that is undeniable. In this world they sack you, they fire you, we know that.

“But, at big clubs, part of the success of the manager is the chairman, the sporting director especially, the CEOs and all the people here.

“It goes to the media, fans and players. There is stability. This is why I think only in few clubs this can happen.”

The mid-season break to accommodate the ongoing 2022 World Cup in Qatar was seen as an excellent opportunity for Guardiola and City to discuss their shared future, with an official announcement expected imminently.

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