Pep Guardiola didn’t pull any punches in his press conference. After a season that left Manchester City bruised, with criticism piling up and painful exits in key competitions, the Spanish manager went back to basics: shake the squad, spend big in the market, and sign a new deal through 2027. “I won’t stay at City if I feel the club needs a change. But right now I want to be here. Even more after what happened last season. At this moment, I want to be in charge of the club, carry the weight, stay with my players, and try to do this.”
Those words hit hard. Guardiola puts himself out front as a shield, but you can also read them as an admission, he knows he still has to prove he’s not sitting in Manchester only because of what he’s already done.
Ten years in charge and the weight of time
By 2026, Guardiola will have been at the City helm for a full decade. That’s a lifetime in modern soccer. The record speaks for itself: countless trophies, the long-awaited Champions League crown. But the longer the run, the bigger the risk of fatigue. He’s fully aware of it, which is why he keeps stressing he doesn’t live off the past. “I’m not here because of what I did before. I like to look ahead. That’s why we’ve had incredible success in recent seasons, but we’re always thinking about what’s next.”
It’s consistent with his philosophy, sure. Guardiola has never been the type to lean on old glories. Still, there’s something defensive in his tone. When a coach insists again and again that he’s focused on the future, it usually means the present isn’t all that convincing.
Cutting loose veterans and the Donnarumma gamble
If anyone wondered whether Guardiola still had the guts to make hard calls, the transfer window answered it. Ederson, once a cornerstone of his system, left under fire after a dip in form. Gundogan, long seen as both a technical and emotional leader, also departed. Moves like these always shake the locker room hierarchy. Guardiola chose to take that risk. He let go of trusted figures to inject new energy. Bold, no doubt, but also dangerous. Without natural leaders, new voices have to rise, and that doesn’t always happen quickly enough to keep pace with the season.
On the flip side, City didn’t hold back on spending. More than 200 million euros went into reinforcements, and Gianluigi Donnarumma was the headline arrival. A Champions League winner with PSG, the Italian didn’t just land in Manchester as a long-term project, but as an answer for today. Guardiola was quick to cool down comparisons with Ederson. “We can’t compare him to the best goalkeeper I’ve ever seen in terms of short and long passing, like Ederson. We didn’t bring Donnarumma to do the same things as Ederson. Donnarumma has other qualities. He’s very tall, he’s huge. He will concede goals, that’s clear, but we’ll all help him so that it doesn’t happen too often.”
That comment says a lot. For the first time in years, Guardiola seems open to softening his obsession with the goalkeeper as a playmaker. Donnarumma doesn’t have Ederson’s passing skills, but he brings something else. It could mean a City that’s less rigid, more pragmatic, more tailored to what the squad actually gives him. For a manager famous for sticking to his principles no matter what, that shift feels significant.