Pep Guardiola bids emotional farewell to Manchester City ahead of final game as manager | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola described his tenure as “everything unexpected” while explaining the simple but profound reasoning behind his decision to leave Manchester City.

In a press conference ahead of Sunday’s Premier League finale against Aston Villa, his last game in charge, Guardiola looked back on the connections he has made to the personal realisation that the time had come to go.

Sunday will also serve as the farewell game for Bernardo Silva and John Stones, two of the most decorated players of the Guardiola era, adding an emotional weight to the occasion that the 55-year-old acknowledged openly.

Guardiola: It’s been so good – everything unexpected

Asked to reflect on his decade at the club, Guardiola reached instinctively for the human rather than the statistical.

“It’s been so good. Everything unexpected. I couldn’t expect 10 years or to meet the incredible people I met. The numbers are the numbers, records, but today is not the day to think about that. It’s about connections I had, the experiences and memories,” he said.

“I didn’t expect to be here 10 years, a lot of time at one club. We pushed each other, the energy always good, back and forth not in one direction and that’s why I stayed.

“We had incredible players. It’s impossible not to have little conflicts but they were little, with good and bad days, everyone has them in our jobs but in general I know perfectly they know what I think about them.”

Guardiola: I love to wake up and take my car to the CFA

On the subject of Sunday’s farewell, Guardiola was candid about the emotion he expects to feel before returning to the love of the everyday that has sustained him through a decade of relentless competition.

“I guess it will not be easy. I have a lot of love, it won’t be easy to see my family there and hopefully I can enjoy,” he added.

“Another thing I enjoy is I can do it alongside John (Stones) and Bernardo. It’s so special. What better two players to live alongside, many years on and off the pitch, they represent this club like true gentlemen.

“I love to be here, to wake up, take my car to the CFA, imagine the game, how we can beat our opponents. Even with a lot of titles, if I did not have fun I would not have been here 10 years. Everything is about how you have fun.”

The image of Guardiola driving to the City Football Academy each morning to imagine how to beat the next opponent – even after six Premier League titles and the Champions League – captures something essential about what has made him the greatest manager of his generation. The obsession never left. And when it does, he says, it is time to go.

Guardiola: The club needs to refresh – I’m so glad they respect my decision

Guardiola’s explanation for his departure was as clear and unsentimental as anything he has said in his final weeks at the club.

“When you lose you are more sad and disappointed but in three days you have another. If you feel fatigue and everything’s not as pleasant, you have to leave. It’s not one person, decision, it’s a question of time. 10 years is a lot of time. I have to have energy all the time and I won’t have it. It’s simple.

“I said that to my players, and the club needs to refresh another step. That’s the reason why and I’m so glad that the club respects me from day one and until now my decision.”

The simplicity of the reasoning – fatigue, energy, renewal – is entirely consistent with the philosophy Guardiola has brought to every aspect of his management.

He has always spoken about joy and passion as non-negotiables, telling his players throughout the season to find the pleasure in what they do and to leave when it is gone.

On Sunday, he takes his own advice – and leaves a club, as Ilkay Gundogan wrote this week, that will never be quite the same again.