Pep Guardiola is staying as Manchester City manager, talkSPORT understands.
The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss has agreed a new rolling one-year deal to extend his stay at the Etihad Stadium until at least the end of next season.
Guardiola’s current contract was due to expire next summer and so there were questions over whether or not this would be his final campaign in charge.
However, these now appear to have been quashed as he has agreed terms on a new deal.
The option for an extra year means he would reach a decade at City should he remain as manager for that long.
It is understood that the agreement was made during the current international break and Guardiola told the club he’d stay in October.
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Last month, Guardiola claimed ‘part of me is leaving’ after is was revealed that sporting director Txiki Begiristain will depart the club.
Speculation over whether or not he’d call time on his stint at the Etihad Stadium only increased as a result but this will now end.
Reacting to the news, former Man City defender Danny Mills said on talkSPORT: “This is very important because I’ve said previously on this show and several others. I think that little bit of uncertainty creeps into the players.
“They’re not quite sure if he’s going to stay not quite sure if they’ll be wanted at the end of the season by another manager if they come in and sometimes that just that little bit of discord can mean that you drop 5 per cent, you know, and I think that’s what’s happened to Manchester City.
“You know, teams will argue. we saw it the first time when Sir Alex Ferguson said he was going to retire. They dropped off massively. I know the second time around he managed to get over the line.
“Under Jurgen Klopp and we had a Liverpool fan texting, ringing the other week and say oh Liverpool were five points clear and they finished nine points behind City after Klopp decided that he was leaving.
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“It does have an effect, you know, simple as that if your manager says he’s leaving at the end of the season.
“They’ve only lost two Premier League games recently. Obviously other ones have been, you know in the Cup and the Champions League, so the league is still there for them.
“I think now this could be the little bit of a shot in the arm that they need to get to get their mojo back to get back into the mould, you know start winning games and challenge to try and win that fifth in a row.”
The Spaniard joined City in the summer of 2016 after glittering spells at Barcelona and Bayern, winning six league titles across the two clubs.
Guardiola guided the club to third in his debut Premier League season but then won back-to-back titles in 2018 and 2019.
City fell off the pace in the 2019/20 campaign as rivals Liverpool were crowned champions but this only inspired a meteoric comeback.
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They have won the Premier League title for the last four seasons in a row, the first club to ever do so in the English top flight.
Alongside such dominance in the league City won their first ever Champions League title with Guardiola 2023, his third European triumph as manager.
They have also lifted the FA Cup on two occasions and the Carabao Cup four times with the 53-year-old across his eight full seasons.
UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup success has also followed, meaning City have won every major trophy possible.
Guardiola has won 360 of his total 490 matches in charge across all competitions, with his sides scoring a whopping 1,239 goals.
City are currently second in the Premier League table and five points behind leaders Liverpool, but the latest news could inspire them to an incredible seventh title under Guardiola.
