Pep Guardiola admits Man City could sack him next month as he pours doubt on new deal

Pep Guardiola has admitted he could soon be sacked by Manchester City despite signing a new contract extension this week. Addressing the media ahead of his side’s game with Tottenham on Saturday, the Spaniard was immediately asked why he opted to put pen to paper.

After initially joking and replying “the weather,” Guardiola then candidly said that he would not be in position until June 2027 if results didn’t improve.

“I didn’t want to get to next September and everyone asking ‘is this the end of Pep, will you sign again’?” he said. “The contract is there, two years, but I know that if the results are not good it will not be two years.”

City go into the weekend on the back of a four-game losing streak, the first time that has happened to Guardiola at any club during his managerial career. And he said that if the harrowing run continued, he could even be gone by January 2025.

“I have incredible, legendary players in the team here but we have to perform. But if we don’t perform our fans, our chairman, will say ‘What is going on? We have to change’. So we are all under pressure.

“It might be a month and I’m not here, if the results continue. But I think, what we’ve done we deserve to be here, what we have done in the last eight years, we deserve to extend the contract.”

Despite his fears, the development almost certainly means that Guardiola will still be at the club for the outcome into the case over City’s 115 alleged Financial Fair Play breaches. And he vowed that regardless of the decision, he would not be jumping ship.

“I said that six months ago. It’s not because I extend the contract that I pretend how nice is Pep. I said six months ago or one year ago, when the other clubs were accusing us, what happens if we get relegated? I will be here. If we are in the Conference or wherever, we are going to come up to the Premier League.”

The 53-year-old did also confirm his squad had suffered another hammer injury blow though. While a number of players are in-line to return against Spurs, it appears Mateo Kovacic has returned from international duty unavailable.

“Kovacic is injured,” said Guardiola, pontedly. “It will be a while, a few weeks or one month. John Stones trained good yesterday, Manu (Akanji) trained good yesterday and Nathan (Ake) is coming back.J ust Ruben (Dias) is out but hopefully he will be back soon.”

Guardiola also thanked fans for the “incredible love and respect” they continued to show him at the club. He also declared himself ‘lucky’ to have been able to decide his future, adding: “Now it not the moment to leave.”