How Pep Guardiola wanted to avoid Liverpool mistake when deciding his future | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola will be stepping down as Manchester City manager, it has today been confirmed, and some interesting details about his decision have emerged.

According to well-connected Spanish journalist Guillem Balague on X, formerly Twitter, Guardiola was keen to keep his decision to leave under wraps for as long as possible.

It seems Guardiola knew he would be leaving at the end of this season a few weeks ago, but decided he wouldn’t announce it early in case Man City ended up struggling like Liverpool did when Jurgen Klopp confirmed his exit months ahead of the end of his final season.

See below for details from Balague, with the key line being: “Once he decided to leave — and this is important, because that decision was only taken seven or eight weeks ago — he wanted to keep control of the situation so it would not influence matters on the pitch. He remembers Klopp’s experience and what happened after he announced his departure in January: after the initial positive reaction, Liverpool’s form tailed off badly during the run-in.”

Balague also praised Guardiola as an “obsessive genius”, whilst adding that the Spanish tactician’s plan for now is to rest.

Manchester City not happy to be losing Pep Guardiola

Interestingly, Balague also provided some insight into the thinking behind the scenes at the Etihad Stadium.

Guardiola will be almost impossible to replace, regardless of the vast resources of the club, with the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss up there with the very best managers of all time.

It remains to be seen how City will recover from this, but Balague pointed out that there isn’t anyone behind the scenes who’s happy with the news that Pep is moving on.

As reported by BBC Sport and others, it looks like former Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca will be Guardiola’s replacement.

Still, the Italian tactician has nowhere near the same kind of CV as Guardiola, who leaves Manchester after winning a stunning six Premier League titles, the Champions League, three FA Cups, and five League Cups.