Manchester City: Shock Pep Guardiola RESIGNATION touted by club legend
Pep Guardiola has one year left on his Manchester City contract and has won every trophy going at the Etihad
Former Manchester City defender Joleon Lescott has tipped Pep Guardiola to end his spell as manager at the Etihad.
City are closing in on a successful Premier League defence, as wins in their final two games against Tottenham and West Ham will be enough to clinch the title. They also have an FA Cup final against rivals Manchester United to look forward to at Wembley on 25 May.
But hopes of repeating last season’s unprecedented treble ended with defeat to Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-finals last month.
And Lescott, speaking to TNT Sports, believes that the rigours of the job could see Guardiola call it a day.
“Potentially it could happen because you don’t know how draining this is,” he said.
“He makes teams go out there, but the consistency and the work ethic he as an individual has to put in, the motivation he has to give to his players every day, not just for training but for every game…it must be tiring.
“If at the end of it he has done four in a row, he may recognise it and think ‘this is me.'
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“That wouldn’t surprise me. I would have been more confident saying that if it was another double treble.”
Guardiola has one year left to run on his contract with City, who he joined in the summer of 2016.
Since then, the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss has led the club to a remarkable period of success.
If they win the Premier League this season, it will be their sixth league crown in the last seven years, while Guardiola has also led the club to its first Champions League trophy, two FA Cups, four League Cups and the FIFA Club World Cup.
Guardiola hinted in February at what he would like to do next when asked what was left for him to achieve when his time in Manchester comes to an end.
"A national team. I would like to train a national team for a World Cup or a European Championship. I would like that,” he told ESPN.
Asked which country that might be, he said: "I don't know who would want me! To work for a national team they have to want you, just like a club."
"I don't know when that would be, if that is five, 10, 15 years from now but I would like to have the experience of being a manager in a World Cup,” Guardiola added.
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Alasdair Mackenzie is a freelance journalist based in Rome, and a FourFourTwo contributor since 2015. When not pulling on the FFT shirt, he can be found at Reuters, The Times and the i. An Italophile since growing up on a diet of Football Italia on Channel 4, he now counts himself among thousands of fans sharing a passion for Ross County and Lazio.