Pep Guardiola drops hint about signing new Man City contract but only on one condition - 7M sport

Pep Guardiola drops hint about signing new Man City contract but only on one condition



Posted Saturday, November 30, 2019 by Express.co.uk

Pep Guardiola drops hint about signing new Man City contract but only on one condition
Pep Guardiola drops hint about signing new Man City contract but only on one condition (Image: GETTY)

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has spoken out about his Etihad future.

Pep Guardiola is open to extending his spell at Manchester City beyond the summer of 2021 but only if he is still having a positive effect on the club. The City manager’s current deal runs out in 18 months at the end of what would be his fifth year in the Etihad dugout.

But he insisted on Friday that he would be interested in extending his time in Manchester if the team were still winning and his players were still listening to him.

“When you are [already] five years it depends on results so we will see what happens this season and next season but I’m open [to the idea] yes,” he said.

“I’m comfortable working with this club. But it is not simple like I want to extend. I want to see the club, I want to see my players and the reaction of my players."

He added: “After five years you have to feel like we can do it together and enjoy to work together.”

Guardiola, 48, spent four years in the hotseat at the Nou Camp as Barcelona’s manager from 2008 to 2012 before being lured to Bayern Munich, where he completed three campaigns.

He signed a contract extension at City after two seasons in charge in May 2018 which aimed to keep him in situ until 2021, which is understood to be worth just over £15million a year.

If he completes his contract he will have outlasted his time in both previous roles, yet the possibility of him extending further would still be a significant departure.

Whether his players are still responding remains the key though for all that Guardiola insisted that was not the reason for the end of his time in either Spain or Germany.

“Maybe with the experience I have now I would have stayed in Barcelona or Bayern Munich,” he added.

“It’s different. In that period I was younger and now I’m more experienced.

“But still I have 18 months, that’s a lot of time in football, that’s why the club and myself agree it is not time to talk just play tomorrow do our best.

"Let's make a good season and after that we see how everything goes.

“That is the best way I trust a lot the club and they trust me and that is the most important thing.

"The results and our passion and what we see and decide.”

City fly to Newcastle for Saturday’s early Premier League kick-off looking to avoid another slip up in the north east following last January’s surprise defeat there.

“When Liverpool lose one game in fifty, to give ourselves a chance we cannot lose games, we know it,” Guardiola acknowledged.

“We have made enough points in the league but one team has not dropped points and Liverpool doing incredibly.

“We have to try to win and after that Burnley. If we can’t do that, it will be more difficult.”

The Catalan added of Newcastle: “It's tough with a new manager but they have good results.

"I think they will stay in the Premier League. They are physically strong, fast up front.

"We forgot to play [last season]. We scored a goal and forgot to attack. We learned from that, obviously, but we had a bad, bad day.

"Everybody understood that and we make a step forward."

City will look to narrow the gap to top-of-the-table Liverpool to six points with a win.

The Reds play Brighton at 3pm, while Leicester - who sit second, one point ahead of City - face Everton on Sunday.



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