Manchester City head coach Josep Guardiola has been at the Etihad Stadium for almost a decade, but one of his former colleagues has suggested he should leave the club.
Josep Guardiola should quit Manchester City and look for a “new project” in order to “regenerate”, according to former performance analyst Carles Planchart.
The Spaniard has been at the Etihad Stadium since 2016, after replacing Manuel Pellegrini as the club’s new head coach. During that time, he led City to six Premier League titles, including four in a row from 2020/21 to 2023/24.
In addition to this, Guardiola won City’s first ever Champions League in June 2023, as well as a number of other major accolades, including two FA Cups and four Carabao Cups. In total, the 54-year-old has won 382 and drawn 79 of his 543 games in charge.
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But Planchard, who worked with Guardiola for 18 years at Barcelona, Bayern Munich and City before stepping down at the end of last season, now believes he needs to step back for a while if he wants to extend his managerial career.
Guardiola’s contract with City is due to expire in 2027 and he has previously said he would like to take a break from the game once he leaves the Manchester club, and Planchert is likely to back that idea.
“It’s a personal decision that he has to make. I think the project should last five or six years, but not more than that,” Planchert told SPORT. “But not for him, but for everyone. After that you have to rebuild. As a friend, I tell him to look for a new project, because he still has a long way to go.”
“This is why he has been at City for so many years. They treated us like family and made us work as if we were at home. He didn’t feel that way at Barça or Bayern.”
“He is a football fanatic. His life is on the green, on the grass. He is a genius, a creator. His greatest strength is the way he invents football. The difficult thing in this life is to create. The rest of us are imitators. He is number one in this respect.”
At one point last season, there was talk that Guardiola was lacking. At one point, City suffered a slump, winning just one of 13 games, the worst result of his managerial career.
Reflecting on last season, when City finished third in the Premier League and improved towards the end of the season, Planchert said: “Sometimes we don’t have enough energy and it’s tough when you get into a bad dynamic.
“In football you always have to be 100 per cent. There have been injuries, some people are nearing the end of their careers.
“There was also a drop in performance among the staff. Due to the lack of energy, we had to fight just to qualify for the Champions League, which was an achievement. We also lost in the cup final. It was punishment for a poor season.”
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