There are undoubtedly defeats that are easier to forget than others. The one against Real Madrid in the semi-final second leg of the Champions League risks haunting Pep Guardiola for a long time. Qualified for 91 minutes in this meeting, Manchester City cracked in the dying seconds of regulation time, before giving way definitively in overtime (4-3, 1-3 ap). This new disappointment in C1 may have triggered something more important in the Catalan coach.
During the press conference following this disappointment, he had already dropped a short sentence that some had perceived as the beginning of weariness in him. “I don’t know, I’m happy and we’ve done great things here, but… We’re here for now, we’ll see in the future. » The future precisely, he is currently scheduled until 2023, expiry of his contract. Everything suggests that if there is a break between the technician and the club, it will intervene on the side of Guardiola.
Guardiola needs time
His management is in any case satisfied with him since according to the English press, she wants to extend it until 2025 and puts the means to achieve his ends: finally win the Champions League. The Cityzens have just recruited Erling Haaland for next season, as if to better strengthen an already bloated workforce in terms of numbers and quality, probably the best endowed in the world. But will this be enough to keep his coach, who arrived in 2016, in the long term. The last declarations of the Spaniard make it possible to doubt.
“If I extend my contract, it won’t be before the end of next season. It won’t happen before. I have been here for many years and I have to see how the team and ourselves, how we are together”he temporizes from the outset in an interview with Sky Sportsbefore being more conciliatory. “If I knew, I would stay 10 more years, but you have to take the time for that. There’s no time for that this season or next.” The frame is set.
