Image Credits: Imago Images
Talk of this being Pep Guardiola’s final season in England has been bubbling away for months, but the noise has cranked up another notch ahead of Manchester City’s trip to Anfield.
With the Catalan now into his tenth year at the Etihad and contracted until 2027, every wobble in City’s form and every pointed answer in a press conference has been seized upon as another hint that the end of an era might be approaching.
The backdrop of a tighter title race and the lingering uncertainty over City’s long‑running off‑field issues has only added to the sense that this campaign feels different.
Jamie Carragher has now poured fuel on that narrative in his latest Telegraph column, arguing that we might be witnessing Guardiola’s “last dance” in the Premier League.
The former Liverpool defender goes further than most pundits, calling Guardiola “the greatest football coach of all time” and insisting English football should “cherish every remaining minute” of his time on these shores. According to Carragher, there are enough “clues mounting up” to suggest that, despite the formal contract extension, the 55‑year‑old could choose to walk away a year early at the end of the current season:
“Pep Guardiola is the greatest football coach of all time and we should cherish every remaining minute of his Premier League career,” the Anfield legend wrote.
“It feels like we are watching Guardiola’s last dance in England. The clues are mounting up, pointing to the idea that he will end his Manchester City reign at the end of this season, with succession plans being formulated and his club’s recent transfer activity smacking of his hierarchy doing everything in its power to ensure he leaves with another trophy.”
If that is the case, then it will likely be the last time we see Pep Guardiola line up on the touchline to face Liverpool in the Premier League. Guardiola has previously asserted that City will be the last club side he manages.
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