Pep Guardiola to Leave Manchester City After a Decade

Pep Guardiola walked into Manchester a decade ago with Noel Gallagher waiting for his first interview. He will walk out on Sunday with an empire behind him and a farewell that English football has rarely seen.

Manchester City have confirmed that Guardiola will leave at the end of the season, with Sunday’s Premier League game against Aston Villa his final match in charge. Ten years. Twenty trophies. An era that bent the shape of the modern game in England.

The End of an Era

The announcement ends days of escalating speculation but still lands with the weight of a shock. Guardiola, 55, was under contract until the summer of 2027. Instead, he has agreed to step down a year early, drawing a firm line under one of the most successful managerial reigns English football has known.

“Don’t ask me the reasons I’m leaving. There is no reason, but deep inside, I know it’s my time,” he said in a long farewell message that mixed humour, nostalgia and something close to finality.

“Nothing is eternal, if it was, I would be here. Eternal will be the feeling, the people, the memories, the love I have for my Manchester City.”

Then, in a sign-off that felt pure Guardiola, he looped back to that first day in Manchester. “When I arrived, my first interview was with Noel Gallagher. I walked out thinking, ‘OK… Noel is here? This will be fun. And what a time we have had together… Noel…I was right. It has been so f****** fun. Love you all.”

A Decade That Redefined a Club

When City pulled off the coup of appointing Guardiola in 2016, they were already ambitious, already wealthy, already competitive. What they were not, yet, was inevitable.

Guardiola changed that.

He arrived with a glittering CV: two Champions League titles and three LaLiga crowns with Barcelona, three Bundesliga titles with Bayern Munich. Manchester was supposed to be the next chapter. It became a manifesto.

Under his watch, City collected six Premier League titles, three FA Cups, five Carabao Cups, the Champions League, the Club World Cup and a stack of records that may stand for years. The numbers are blunt; the football was anything but.

The 100-point league campaign in 2018 turned the Premier League into a canvas for his positional play. The domestic treble in 2019 underlined a ruthless grip on English competitions. The treble in 2023 – Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League – pushed City into a rarefied space usually reserved for football’s grand institutions.

This season, he departs with a domestic cup double in his pocket. City’s bid for a seventh league title under him only fell away in their penultimate game, a 1-1 draw at Bournemouth on Tuesday that finally broke their chase.

What Comes Next

The bench will not stay empty for long. Enzo Maresca, Guardiola’s former assistant and out of work since leaving Chelsea in January, has emerged as the favourite to succeed him. If appointed, he would inherit not just a squad, but a fully formed footballing culture shaped in Guardiola’s image.

Guardiola himself will not disappear from the City orbit. He will move into a role as global ambassador for the City Football Group, shifting from the touchline to the boardroom, from day-to-day decisions to long-term symbolism.

City chief executive Ferran Soriano captured the scale of what he leaves behind. “Pep’s legacy is extraordinary and its true impact will be better assessed by Manchester City historians of the future,” he said.

Historians will have plenty to sift through: the titles, the tactical innovations, the transformation of City from contenders to a machine that set the standard season after season.

On Sunday, though, it strips back to something simpler. One last game. One last Guardiola team talk. One last walk down the Etihad touchline.

After that, English football moves into a landscape it has not known for ten years: a Premier League without Pep Guardiola on a dugout.