Three thousand six hundred and seven days ago, on 8 July 2016, Josep Guardiola Sala sat down for his first news conference as manager of Manchester City and the first thing he was asked was to tell City fans what they could expect from the club in ‘the next three or four years’ under his management.
The then-45-year-old, sporting an immaculate suit and tie and wearing tinges of grey hairs around the edges of his beard, responded that he would try to make his new supporters proud.
Just under ten years on, the suits are gone, replaced with whatever takes Guardiola’s fancy – hoodies, sharp jumpers, even a now-iconic hooded cardigan for half a season – and the beard is almost entirely grey.
But the Catalan’s appearance isn’t the only thing which has changed. Over the past decade, Guardiola has become one of the most beloved figures that Manchester City has ever had, one of the most decorated managers of all-time in the Premier League, and has cemented his legacy as one of the most consequential figures in the history of football.
More than that, though, Pep has changed and been changed by Manchester. What started as the setting for the third chapter of his coaching career has become a love affair with a city and a fanbase that now compete for affection even with his beloved Barcelona, and what started as a job to springboard Manchester City into football’s elite has become the beautiful addiction that has taken him ten glorious years to now, finally, wrestle himself away from.
Sunday’s game at home against Aston Villa – perhaps fittingly, given it’s the same fixture in which Guardiola sealed his most euphoric Premier League title win – will mark the end of this golden chapter in Manchester City’s history, as we bid farewell to the man who made it happen, along with two of his most trusted lieutenants in John Stones and Bernardo Silva.
So join City Xtra in this celebration of the Pep Guardiola years, in which the great man became mes que un entrenador – more than a coach – to every Blue.
Of course, the bandwagon didn’t get off to a rolling start. In spite of the rhetoric often spouted by detractors, Guardiola inherited a squad sprinkled with talent but which was in large parts too long in the tooth and not equipped for competing deep into four competitions – they had sealed fourth spot with a draw at Swansea on the final day of the season prior to his arrival, finishing in the fourth UEFA Champions League spot above Manchester United on goal difference.
How Khaldoon Al Mubarak and Ferran Soriano have reacted to Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City exit
Guardiola was the man around whom the club’s modern structure had been built to attract, inspired by owner Sheikh Mansour and chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak‘s love of the football played by his great Barcelona side from 2008-12; hiring his old chums from Barcelona, Ferran Soriano as CEO and Txiki Begiristain as director of football, were moves mainly made to help win over Guardiola.
They came close to appointing him as Roberto Mancini‘s time at the club wound down, but couldn’t convince him to cut short the sabbatical he undertook after fizzling out at Camp Nou, and instead opted for Manuel Pellegrini.
Having got their man though, City were reluctant to overhaul the squad as much as the incoming boss felt was necessary, leading to a 2016-17 season that wasn’t without its promise but which ultimately ended trophyless, a first in Guardiola’s managerial career. An unbeaten final eight league games, featuring 23 goals, offered promise for what was to come though.
That first year also kickstarted what has been a love-hate relationship for Guardiola with the press pack. Famously irked at having to fulfil media duties, Pep has nonetheless provided countless memorable and ‘memeable’ moments in his interactions with journalists – lauding John Stones’ courage in what we’ll describe as a colourful manner, insisting that he was happy after an unspectacular 2-1 win over Burnley and bizarrely wishing the interviewer a ‘happy New Year’, and deadpanning: “I’m not a coach for the tackles – what’s tackles” following a 4-2 defeat at Leicester, all just being examples from his first season at the Etihad Stadium.
The next two campaigns were a different proposition altogether, and remain for many the pinnacle of Pep’s coaching accomplishment in Manchester. 198 points, 64 wins and 201 goals over the course of two league terms, with two Carabao Cups and an FA Cup in that time for good measure; the 2017-18 season being the most dominant in Premier League history, with the Blues one second-half collapse against United away from securing the title the earliest of any team in history, and going on to be the first team to reach a century of points anyway.
The record 19-point gap to second place that year was followed by a one-point margin of victory in the following season as City were required to string together 14 straight wins to end the season to hold off Liverpool, the finest runners-up the league has ever seen on 97 points.
Pep got the better of great rival Jurgen Klopp on that occasion, having been bested by the German in the Champions League the season prior. It was the beginning of an historic period of rivalry between the pair which defined that era of the Premier League, with City and Liverpool meeting in some of the most memorable head-to-head encounters ever, and splitting every title between them from Guardiola’s first victory in 2018 until Arne Slot – largely leaning on what Klopp had built – in 2025.
The Reds couldn’t be held off forever, and an inconsistent City season in 2019-20 allowed them to run off with their first title in 30 years. Midway through that campaign saw the COVID-19 pandemic strike, with Guardiola admirably insisting that club staff be paid in full throughout the lockdown months and not be put on furlough. The Catalan also lost his mother Dolors during this time.
My farewell speech to Manchester City squad was a disaster, admits Pep Guardiola
Games continued behind closed doors into the following campaign, but after a rocky start, City’s mojo was back. An incredible surge from the depths of mid-table in January saw the Blues saunter off with their third league title in four years, adding to it with the last of four consecutive League Cup triumphs and a first-ever run to the UEFA Champions League final – the infamous occasion of Guardiola’s worst ‘overthink’, as an unusual City line-up succumbed to defeat to Chelsea.
That resurgence in both the Blues’ form and fluidity was aided in no small part by the utilisation of a false nine, the role Guardiola had helped bring back into vogue by playing Lionel Messi there in his Barcelona days, and which became one of the tactical tinkerings most synonymous with his City team in both the lockdown 2020-21 season and the following year. Pep’s strikerless men again pipped Liverpool to the title by a point after a Kevin De Bruyne-inspired run-in surge and the bedlam of Ilkay Gundogan‘s final-day brace to beat Villa 3-2.
Guardiola cried in his technical area as the final whistle was blown that day, in one of the less explosive reactions that City fans have been privy to when looking down to the Etihad Stadium and travelling dugouts over the years.
Whether it’s jumping for joy as Gabriel Jesus lofted in the goal to make them Centurions at Southampton and Vincent Kompany blasted home a decisive winner against Leicester City, or slumping to his knees for missed chances against Real Madrid and as Heung-Min Son raced clear to be denied by Stefan Ortega Moreno in other defining moments we’ll relive later, Guardiola has always worn his heart on the sleeves of his designer getup.
Conspicuous in its comparative absence to this point has been description of how City under Guardiola have fared on the continent. Ridiculous high-scoring defeats were the order of the first four seasons in the UEFA Champions League, as the Blues shipped six, five, four and three goals in knockouts at the hands of AS Monaco, Liverpool, Tottenham and Lyon, the former of those in the last 16 then three on the bounce in the quarter-finals.
The aforementioned final followed in 2021, but it was semi-final heartbreak in 2022 as City battered Real Madrid over two legs, only for two last-minute Rodrygo goals to cause a collapse at the Santiago Bernabeu. The next season we’ll discuss was a happier one on the continental front, though…
The arrival of goalscoring behemoth Erling Haaland again forced tactical rejigs from Guardiola, and the team once more seemed out-of-sorts in the first half of 2022-23. It wasn’t until some months after the winter FIFA World Cup break that City clicked into gear, with Stones’ role moving from the backline into midfield next to Rodri – and often wherever else he wanted to – proving the key to the most glittering end to a campaign in English club history.
City were perhaps further buoyed that February by the Premier League’s announcement of the 115 charges of breaching its financial rules against the club – Guardiola only inspired deeper devotion from the fans with his steadfast defence of Manchester City on the issue to this day.
Arsenal, and Pep’s former protégé Mikel Arteta, were the title race foes this time, but the master twice schooled the apprentice in their head-to-head meetings, and the league ‘three-peat’ was wrapped up with games to spare – despite a near-implosion mid-season as Pep fumed: “I don’t want a happy flowers team, I want to beat Arsenal”. Next came the FA Cup, featuring the occasion’s quickest-ever goal as Gundogan volleyed in after 13 seconds, helping City to a sweet victory in the first cup final Manchester derby.
All of that built up to perhaps the night which will be most remembered from Guardiola’s reign, as at long last, the trophy which many felt the Catalan had been brought in to win was added to the trophy cabinet after Inter were defeated 1-0 in the Champions League final in Istanbul.
In a campaign wherein RB Leipzig were blitzed 7-0 with a five-goal haul for Haaland, Bayern Munich were swatted away 3-0 and the demons of Real Madrid were emphatically banished with one of the all-time great European performances in a 4-0 semi-final blitz, a below-par City crawled over the line in the final thanks to a swish of Rodri’s right foot.
Guardiola retained his composure to shake hands with opposing boss Simone Inzaghi, but let all the emotion out as he embraced de Bruyne, declaring: “Seven years of fighting, Kev, we did it”. The 55-year-old learned from his Barcelona days that, in such a ruthless industry, being too close to your players could end with one or both parties being burned, so he tries to remain more detached from the squad these days; it’s not always successful though. Living in the same apartment complex as Gundogan, declaring his love for Bernardo Silva any chance he gets and admitting that Phil Foden is like a son to him is proof that the players he’s coached in his time in Manchester have left special imprints on him.
Pep Guardiola: Part of me is leaving Manchester City with ‘special’ Bernardo Silva
How to go again after scaling the treble mountain (and indeed, it quickly became the quintuple as the UEFA Super Cup and former iteration of the Club World Cup were duly bagged) was the question of 2023-24, with old foes Arsenal and Liverpool again providing title rivalry as City chased an unprecedented fourth straight Premier League.
It went down to the last day thanks to the aforementioned Ortega save helping preserve victory over Spurs, and it was fitting that the trophy was sealed against West Ham by goals from the two outstanding players of that season – Rodri, in the campaign he would go on to be awarded the Ballon d’Or for, and Foden, whose beautiful blossoming after Pep’s years of nurturing would see him voted the PFA Player of the Year.
The years eventually caught up to an ageing and weary squad last season, with Guardiola – who likely would have left last summer if not for the collapse, which motivated him to stay another year and turn things around – eventually getting things back on track, qualifying for the Champions League and reaching a third straight FA Cup final, losing out in unfortunate manner to Crystal Palace.
Part of the appeal in staying so long for Guardiola has been the affection he’s found for Manchester itself. He’s plunged himself into the club’s history and struck up a relationship with the likes of iconic former City winger Mike Summerbee, yes, but he’s also embraced the wider culture of his adoptive home. When now ex-wife Cris and daughters Maria and Valentina were present for the 2017 bombing of Manchester Arena, Pep ran to the streets looking to help, and attended the memorial for the victims of the attack the next day – he quoted the poem performed that day by Tony Walsh in the announcement video of his City departure.
Guardiola has also become a good friend to Oasis star Noel Gallagher, and attended the Heaton Park show on the band’s reunion tour last year, sporting a retro Manchester City shirt. A famous video during the 2022 title celebrations sees Guardiola puffing a cigar and singing along to Don’t Look Back In Anger, his favourite Oasis song.
In what has proven to be his final City season, a transitioning team were thrust into an unexpected title race as other contenders fell away and Arsenal seemed to come into reach – it wasn’t to be though, and the Blues had to settle for the more-than-satisfactory consolation prize of a domestic cup double, the first of which saw Guardiola hand out yet another lesson to Arteta in a 2-0 League Cup final win.
A minority of fans had begun to question whether Guardiola remained the right man to lead City in the final two seasons of his tenure, with other teams seeming to catch up to the previously untouchable standard-bearer of management worldwide.
Regardless of your stance, though, if you’ve been a City fan at any point over the last decade, it’s inconceivable not to have fallen in love with Guardiola and his teams down the years. Asked about the City faithful singing for him to stay one more year despite a draw at Bournemouth in midweek ceding the Premier League title, Pep said: “They love me so much, I love them even more”. We’re not so sure that’s possible.
My 94-year-old father will visit Etihad Stadium on Sunday, says Pep Guardiola on renaming of North Stand
Former Pep assistant coach Enzo Maresca seems nailed-on to take on the unenviable task of following the great man, and he’ll have the full backing of the City support as he does so. It can’t go unsaid, though, that the outrageous standards set by Guardiola – the 20 trophies in ten years, a run of six Premier Leagues out of seven, setting practically every meaningful record with his very first title win – cannot be expected of anyone, and that City fans must truly acknowledge that the consistent excellence they’ve seen is not the norm.
It’s an uncertain time approaching for the Blues. For all that the expectation, as was conveyed in that very first press conference all those years ago, was for Guardiola to do three or four years then leave, he’s now spent more time at City than he did at Barcelona and Bayern Munich combined, and on Sunday will become the boss to have managed the most games in the club’s history.
Inconceivable as it might be to fans who lived through the golden period of the late 60s and early 70s, the dark days of the 90s or the turning of the tide in the early 2010s, there will be large swathes of supporters who don’t remember a time when Pep Guardiola wasn’t Manchester City manager. Even City Xtra came into being more than two years after Guardiola first took charge.
The end has now come for this most brilliant period in the club’s existence, and in the trophy parade on Monday 25 May 2026 we must bid a most tearful goodbye to the man who can now stake a claim to being the biggest legend in the history of the club. Neither words nor gestures – even ones as grandiose as the statue to be erected in his honour, or the North Stand to be renamed after him – cannot express what he means to us.
So we’ll simply say thank you endlessly, Pep. It’s been our honour, our privilege, and our eternal pride to have had you as the manager of the football club that we all, and now you too, love.
Gracias por todo, leyenda.
