Pep Guardiola has had an incredibly successful career as a football manager, achieving a level of job security most can only dream of.
In his 16 seasons, he’s never been fired, defying the common saying that all managers eventually get sacked. The late Howard Wilkinson said, “There are only two types of managers. Those who’ve been sacked and those who will be sacked in the future.”
Has Guardiola reached that future? He famously said as Barcelona manager, “The day I see the light go out of my players’ eyes, I’ll know it’s time to go.”
After four consecutive league losses and no win in seven in all competitions, has the light gone out of his players’ eyes as Guardiola finds himself in unfamiliar territory—facing criticism and pressure from outside?
When Liverpool fans taunted him with chants of “You are getting sacked in the morning,” Guardiola responded by holding up six fingers, a reminder of his impressive six Premier League titles with Manchester City.
In the post-match press conference, Guardiola radiated a quiet confidence and looked like someone who knew a secret that other mortals were unaware of. “I want the team back. I want the players back. Three or four players came back [from injury], and the feeling from here is we started to build something.
“From here, we’re going to try to build, win games and regain our confidence. Then we are [a] team, and it’s fantastic. I’m sitting here defending what we defend because these players give everything. The best years I lived in Manchester, and I have to find a solution to try to win games.”
Guardiola has voluntarily resigned from his two previous jobs. After four seasons at Barcelona, Guardiola said, “The reason is simple: four years is enough. I’m drained, and I need to fill up. The demand has been very high, and a manager must be strong.”
Early in November 2024, Guardiola revealed, “The danger of daily fatigue that comes with trying to manage the Barca environment. The scorn for what you do is constant, and this ends up taking its toll on you.”
After a brief sabbatical in New York, the 53-year-old Catalan chose Bayern Munich in 2013. When he left after three seasons, he said, “I have some offers from England, but I’ve not signed anything yet. If I were 60, 65 years old, I’d stick with Bayern, but I think I’m too young. I need a new challenge,” he added.
He has mastered that challenge over the last eight seasons, winning six league titles, the UEFA Champions League, the Club World Cup, and both the FA and League Cups. Many doubted he would sign an extension to a contract that was supposed to expire in 2025, but Guardiola signed a two-year extension last month, and then the bad run ensued.
After he signed his contract extension, Guardiola said [with a bit of sarcasm], “I felt I could not leave now. Maybe the four defeats [now six] was why,” Guardiola revealed to City’s official website.
“I think we deserve, after four defeats in a row, to bounce back and try to turn the situation. I think we deserve to be here. I am not arrogant to say, but it’s the truth.
“We have to recover that because right now we don’t have it, and that’s the target we have to do,” he added. That has become six defeats in the last seven, and the collapse against Feyenoord in the Champions League when they let a 3-0 lead slip in the last 15 minutes of the game lays bare the enormous challenges that face Guardiola and his team.
Clarion calls to rebuild
Guardiola has tried to explain why he has not been sacked (or will not be sacked). “At this football club, you have to win, and if you don’t win, you will be in trouble. I know the people say, Why is Pep not in trouble? Why is Pep not sacked? What we have done over the last eight years is why I have this margin.
“The people rely on me, the hierarchy, the people. It is not normal in the big clubs to do the results we have, but we have to accept it. What’s for sure [is] I want to stay. I want to do it. But the moment I feel I am not positive for the club, another one will come. It has to be.
“But I want the opportunity. I want the opportunity to try. I don’t want to run. I want to be there and rebuild the team in many aspects from now on until the end of the season and next season. I want to continue up there. I asked for that challenge, and I asked for this opportunity to do it because I feel it.”
Guardiola added with optimism, “I know what we want to do; I know what we need and what we have to do, knowing at that moment that we don’t have that consistency that we had; obviously, we don’t have it right now.”
Mikel Arteta, now the manager of Arsenal and a former understudy to Pep Guardiola, believes the focus shouldn’t be on these recent losses but on how Guardiola’s teams have maintained near perfection over the past nine years.
“Everyone goes through tough times,” Arteta said in his pre-match press conference last Friday. “For them, it’s very strange because they haven’t had one in the last nine years. This highlights the level and the environment we compete in: everything has to be almost perfect.”
Four-Four-two magazine states that “His [Guardiola] style demands so much mental and physical concentration from his players—and indeed himself—that to expect success beyond three years is foolish.”
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Despite the impressive track record of managers like Carlo Ancelotti and Jose Mourinho, who have experienced dismissals throughout their careers, Guardiola aspires to a different legacy.
He secretly admires the career paths of Jurgen Klopp and Zinedine Zidane, who have maintained consistent success without facing the setback of ever being sacked. Guardiola’s desire to avoid this blemish on his CV will be the burning ambition as he seeks an immediate turnaround in fortunes for his team, starting with the game against Nottingham Forest on Wednesday.
Guardiola has been at City for eight years, and he will likely remain there for a decade, but the current reality is startling. Can he be sacked for the first time in his career?
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