Pep Guardiola says next season could be his last as Manchester City manager.
City beat West Ham 3-1 on Sunday to lift an unprecedented fourth successive Premier League title and Guardiola’s sixth in seven seasons in Manchester.
Guardiola has one year left to run on his contract at City and says he is yet to decide on his future.
“The reality is I’m closer to leaving than to staying,” the City manager told Sky Sports.
“It’s eight years, will be nine. Right now my feeling is I want to stay next season. We talked with the club, we have time to talk next season because I have to see the players as well, if they follow me, they follow us.
“I want to stay next season. During the season, we will talk. But after eight, nine years…”
Guardiola has won every trophy possible in English football and admits he has found himself wondering what else there is for him to achieve at City.
Pep Guardiola has won six Premier League titles since taking over at Manchester City in 2016
“I had that feeling last season [after we won the treble],” he said in his press conference. “We were in Istanbul and I said, ‘It’s over. What am I doing here? There is nothing left.’ But I have a contract. I am here and I am still enjoying some of the moments, sometimes tired but some of them I love.
“And after a few days, we start playing good, winning games, different players, and we start to think about how no one has done four in a row. Why not try it?
“Now, I am feeling it is done. What next? I don’t know, right now. Well, I know it is FA Cup.
“I know no team in all history, Gary Lineker told me, I did not know it, no team has done back-to-back Premier Leagues and FA Cups.
“So, it is our rivals, and what I want is for my players to enjoy it for two or three days and then we have two or three days to prepare the final.
Pep Guardiola salutes the Manchester City fans as he waits to receive the Premier League trophy
“But, next season, right now, I am not able to know what will be the motivation to do it. It is difficult sometimes to find it when everything is done.
“But I know that the players and myself will be there and think, why shouldn’t we win today? Why not? Why should we not work as much as possible to do what we have to do?
“And I know we are going to do it. I know.”
How Guardiola’s hunger has driven Man City to another title
Manchester City fans raise a cardboard Premier League trophy reflecting their club’s four successive title wins
In a season that was notable for Jurgen Klopp announcing his departure from Liverpool because he was “running out of energy” to do the job, Pep Guardiola was able to push Manchester City on to the Premier League title once again.
That relentless drive remains, that appetite to coax yet more from a team that had already achieved it all in winning the treble. Victory in the FA Cup final will complete another double – back-to-back doubles for the first time in English football history.
Beating West Ham on the final day of the Premier League season makes City the first team to win English football’s league title four times in a row too. It is an accomplishment that Guardiola prizes, having appeared to use it to spur on himself and the group.
How long can Guardiola and City continue to do this? That remains to be seen. Perhaps it is only once he leaves, and if his team were to then suffer a surprising dip, that the scale of his accomplishment in sustaining success for so long would truly be understood.
Read full analysis from Sky Sports’ Adam Bate HERE
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