Pep Guardiola considering one-year Manchester City extension after England make contact
Pep Guardiola is considering renewing his contract at Manchester City for another 12 months having also been sounded out to become the next England manager.
Guardiola has received approaches from three national teams in recent months, including from the Football Association, with his current deal at City due to run out at the end of this season. Understandably the FA and other countries wanted to ascertain his intentions.
Guardiola is interested in one day coaching a national team and, it is understood, that money will not be an important factor in his decision. The 53-year-old accepts that he, or any national coach, would not receive the same level of salary as is commanded at a top European club. He would take the job for what it is.
This might cause excitement that he can be lured by England, given the expectation that hiring him would be too expensive, but a note of caution was being sounded as to whether he would be seriously interested at present.
Even so Guardiola has not ruled out formally speaking to the FA about succeeding Gareth Southgate and England would be a strong option should he decide to leave club football. He also likes the country and its squad of players and wants to eventually coach at a World Cup.
But neither will he be held to a deadline as he considers his future. It is said Guardiola could decide next week, next month or next year on his course of action.
It also remains entirely possible that he will leave City when his contract ends and take another sabbatical – as he did when he quit Barcelona in 2012 and moved to New York.
However, sources have tentatively suggested that the most likely scenario, at present, is that he signs another deal at City – albeit for just one more year. City would like him to sign for longer but would be delighted he if renews.
That would take Guardiola up to 10 years – a complete decade – at City having joined in 2016 and he likes the idea of completing that period of time at the club.
The last contract extension Guardiola agreed was in November 2022, which took him up to 2025, but if he stays at City it is expected to be for the shorter-term deal.
The FA have sounded out a number of candidates as technical director John McDermott continues to update his short-list for the next permanent manager. The governing body has made it clear that it would not limit itself to English coaches and Guardiola would certainly be top of their wishlist should the Catalan give them any encouragement.
The FA will argue it would have been negligent of them, given Guardiola’s contractual situation and given he has made it known he wants to coach a national side at some stage in his career, not to make an approach.
Guardiola emphatically fits the criteria put forward by the FA for a new head coach and does admire the England team which includes a number of players he has worked with and developed such as Phil Foden, John Stones, Rico Lewis and Cole Palmer.
When asked about his future on Sunday, Guardiola said on Italian TV show Che Tempo Che Fa: “Leaving City? It’s not true, I haven’t decided yet. And it is not even true that I will be the next England coach. If I had decided I would say it… I don’t know either, anything can happen.
That is understood to the case although, as yet, the FA have not received any encouragement.
Guardiola’s long-standing friend, Txiki Begiristain, who is City’s director of football and helped persuade his former Barcelona team-mate to the club, has already confirmed he is leaving at the end of the season. He will be replaced by Hugo Viana of Portuguese club, Sporting. Sources insist that Begiristain leaving, despite the pair being so close, will not influence Guardiola’s own decision.
It is understood that foreign managers, including the German former Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel – who is interested – and Tottenham Hotspur’s Australian head coach Ange Postecoglou have been on the FA’s shortlist along with Newcastle United’s Eddie Howe and Graham Potter, who is available having left Chelsea in April last year.
The next England manager will not, however, be Lee Carsley who has taken the role on an interim basis for the Nations League campaign. After England’s 3-1 victory against Finland in Helsinki on Sunday, he said the country needed “a world-class coach who has won trophies” and that he is short of that level at this stage of his career.
Carsley then attempted to row back on that position to suggest he was interested. The Birmingham-born former Republic of Ireland international later added that he believed the next England manager does not have to be English – and added that he would happily work as part of the coaching staff even if he does not get the top job.
Asked whether he believes it must be an English appointment, Carsley said: “No, definitely not. It’s important that the best candidate gets the job. We’ve seen in the past that we’ve had different nationalities coach the teams, so it’s the best candidate should get the job. We’d be putting ourselves in a corner if we didn’t, and we didn’t open our minds a bit.”
Also asked, given his recent experience with the seniors, whether he would now be willing to form part of the coaching staff of whoever is the new manager or would prefer to return to manage the Under-21s Carsley said: “I really enjoy my job, the 21s, I work for, like I say, a great organisation, it’ll be down to John [McDermott] and my bosses to choose what I do, I’m happy to... whatever I’m asked to do I’ll do.”
Telegraph Sport exclusively reported on Saturday that sources in and around the England set-up are convinced Carsley does not want the role on a permanent basis once the programme of six Nations League group games is completed next month. It is now believed he is not under consideration.
Watkins: Playing with ‘false nine’ requires time
Ollie Watkins has accepted Carsley’s decision to play without a striker in Harry Kane’s absence but has insisted England will need time to work on the ‘false nine’ system.
Carsley’s squad trained in the surprise formation for just 20 minutes before the defeat by Greece last week, with the England interim manager going without a centre-forward rather than giving Watkins his chance after playing back-up to Kane at the European Championship.
Watkins provided assists off the bench in both matches, with Carsley abandoning his new system to chase the game against Greece and also bringing on the Aston Villa striker against Finland.
“We have so many world-class players. It’s a shame any game you don’t start. Everyone wants to start, but it’s the manager’s decision,” said Watkins. “It’s one you have to accept. He explained to me that he was trying something different.
“I was all for it, we’ve got so many good players. He wanted to try something different, but explained that he didn’t have too much time to do it. He wanted to do it and see how it went.
“I think the best example is Liverpool and [Roberto] Firmino played, he was like a false nine and they got it spot on to be fair. Obviously it can work, but I feel like they are training together every day, you need maybe a little bit more time. We have definitely got the players to do it.”
Watkins has scored four goals in seven Premier League matches this season. He added an assist for Jude Bellingham in the Greece game, before setting up Declan Rice’s goal in Helsinki on Sunday.
“I felt like when I came on I tried to provide some energy and bring a lift to the game, something different. I thought I did that,” said Watkins.
“People know what I can do. Whenever I come on I always try to grab that chance with both hands and make a difference, that’s what substitutes are there to do.”