Pep Guardiola's Future at Manchester City: The Final Week?
Inside Manchester City, a strange tension hangs over a team still chasing another Premier League title. Publicly, the message is clear: no decision, no farewell, no ending yet. Privately, many around the club are preparing as if this is it – the final days of Pep Guardiola’s era at the Etihad.
Multiple internal figures now reportedly expect Guardiola to step down at the end of the current season. No statement, no goodbye video, no carefully crafted tribute has emerged. But the clues are starting to line up.
The most striking of them is the looming departure of Lorenzo Buenaventura, Guardiola’s long-term fitness coach, confidant, and one of the most trusted voices in his inner circle. Buenaventura is set to leave at the end of the campaign. For people who know that relationship, it feels less like a coincidence and more like a signpost.
Public defiance, private doubt
Just 48 hours before these reports gathered pace, Guardiola had done what he does best: win. Manchester City edged Chelsea 1-0 to lift the FA Cup, Antoine Semenyo’s solitary goal delivering the Catalan his 20th trophy at the club in his 10th year in charge.
Before that game, Guardiola brushed aside the idea that it might be his last visit to the national stadium as City boss. When asked if this could be his farewell trip, he shot back with a firm “no way”. Classic Pep. Combative, sharp, unwilling to let the narrative drift away from the football.
Yet behind that front, the atmosphere around the club tells a different story. Staff, players, and executives are still locked into a title race with Arsenal that could go to the wire, but away from the cameras there is an acceptance that City might be on the brink of the most seismic managerial change in their history.
A ‘real possibility’ this is the end
Reporting from The Athletic’s Sam Lee paints a picture of a club caught between hope and preparation. People within football circles, and several sources in various departments around City’s first-team operation, give off the sense that there is a “real possibility” this is Guardiola’s final week in charge at the Etihad.
Inside City, the official stance remains firm. No decision has been made. They are working on the assumption that Guardiola stays. Until he walks into a room, looks the hierarchy in the eye and says he is leaving, they will behave as though he is not.
Even so, different areas of the club have already started planning for life after him. Contingency work has begun. Scenarios are being mapped out. When a manager has defined a club so completely for a decade, you cannot wait for the handshake and the press release to start thinking about what comes next.
Buenaventura’s exit only deepens that feeling. He is not just another staff member. He has been a constant presence at Guardiola’s side, a trusted ally through title races, Champions League campaigns, and the relentless churn of English football. His decision to go at the end of the season is seen by some who know them both as another strong indication that Pep could follow.
Silence before the storm
If Guardiola is to leave, timing the announcement will be delicate. City are still locked in a neck-and-neck race with Arsenal, every point and every goal potentially decisive. The wrong message at the wrong time could tilt the mood, on the pitch and in the stands.
The current thinking, according to Lee’s report, is that the club may keep things quiet for the next few days, heavily influenced by the midweek results. Arsenal face Burnley. Manchester City travel to Bournemouth 24 hours later. Those two fixtures could decide the direction of the Premier League trophy – and, with it, the window in which City choose to speak publicly about Guardiola’s future.
If the title race effectively ends by midweek, there is a possibility that “official confirmation” of Guardiola’s departure could arrive in the build-up to the final game of the season, at home to Aston Villa. That would turn the Etihad into a stage for both a potential title decider and a farewell to the greatest manager the club has ever had.
What comes after Pep?
For all the tactical diagrams and data models, this is an emotional problem as much as a footballing one. If this truly is the end of the road, Manchester City must replace the man who has shaped their identity, their style, their standards and their ambitions for a decade.
The task is brutal. Any successor will be asked to inherit Guardiola’s tactical blueprint, maintain his level of excellence, and do it under the weight of constant comparison. The club, with Director of Football Hugo Viana involved in preparations, has reportedly sketched out plans for the post-Pep era. Names are being discussed. Structures are being stress-tested.
But there is no escaping the emotional toll. Many of the players have known no other City than Pep’s City. Staff have built careers and reputations inside his framework. The entire organisation has moved to his rhythm.
One name already hovering around the conversation is Enzo Maresca. Whether he eventually becomes the man to lead the next chapter or not, the very fact his name is being linked shows how quickly the conversation has shifted from “if” to “when”.
A final act at the Etihad?
So attention turns to the run-in. If Arsenal slip against Burnley and City take advantage at Bournemouth on Tuesday night, that final-day meeting with Aston Villa could become one of those rare afternoons that define an era.
A title on the line. A decade-long dynasty potentially drawing to a close. A stadium watching every movement of a 55-year-old coach who has changed their club beyond recognition, wondering if each wave, each glance, each step back into the dugout might be his last in those familiar technical area markings.
For now, the message from the Etihad is unchanged: nothing is decided. But the mood around the club, the whispers from different departments, the departure of Lorenzo Buenaventura, and the carefully managed silence suggest something else.
If this is the end, it will not just be the close of a managerial reign. It will be the moment Manchester City discover what they are without Pep Guardiola – and whether the machine he built can keep winning once its architect has walked away.
