Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has agreed a one-year contract extension.
Although City are refusing to comment on a story that was first reported in the Athletic, multiple sources have confirmed Guardiola has elected to sign a new deal to take his stay at the club to 10 years.
The 53-year-old joined City in 2016 and has won 18 trophies so far, including six Premier League titles.
His contract had been due to expire at the end of the current season. There have been suggestions the new agreement will have the option of a second year, although this is not known at this stage.
During his time in Manchester, Guardiola has seen City become just the second English men’s team to win the Treble – the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League in the same season.
They have also become the first team to win four successive English top-flight titles and to achieve 100 Premier League points.
City sit second in this season’s Premier League, five points behind leaders Liverpool, and are on a run of four successive defeats across all competitions.
That is the first time Guardiola has endured such a dismal streak of losses – excluding shootouts – in his managerial career.
After the most recent of those losses, a 2-1 defeat at Brighton, he said: “Maybe after seven years winning six Premier Leagues, maybe one year another team deserve it.”
Guardiola has previously signed extensions in May 2018, November 2020 and November 2022.
Speaking in May after City’s historic fourth successive league title, Guardiola said he was “closer to leaving than staying”.
Guardiola then said “part of me is leaving” when director of football Txiki Begiristain announced in October that he – a long-time ally – would be leaving City at the end of the season.
Former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss Guardiola said he wanted to be “really convinced” that any extension “is the best for the club”.
The uncertainty over Guardiola’s future has been cited by some as a reason for the club’s poor form.
There is also no timescale for the outcome of the disciplinary case brought by the Premier League for the 115 charges against City, which the club deny but could bring a huge sanction if guilt was established. Guardiola has continually backed the club and said critics need to wait for the final decision in the case before rushing to condemn.
He is the longest-serving current manager in the Premier League, after Jurgen Klopp left Liverpool in the summer.
What has Guardiola achieved at Man City?
After moving to Manchester from Bayern in 2016, Guardiola went without a trophy in a season for the first time in his career.
Typically, he bounced back in 2017-18 to secure a double. In that campaign, City became the first top-flight English team to reach 100 points in a season with a win at Southampton on the final day. They also won the EFL Cup.
In the following season, City became the first men’s team to win the domestic treble in England, rounded off by an emphatic 6-0 FA Cup final win over Watford.
In 2019-20, the season affected by Covid-19, City won the EFL Cup, but Liverpool beat them to the Premier League title and Guardiola’s side suffered Champions League disappointment when they were knocked out in a single-leg quarter-final by Lyon.
City’s recent stranglehold on the Premier League began in 2020-21, with Guardiola’s side winning their first of a historic four titles in a row, as well as claiming the EFL Cup again.
Another top-flight title was secured in 2021-22, with Guardiola becoming the second-most successful manager in Premier League history.
City became only the second men’s English team, after rivals Manchester United, to win the Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup Treble when they pulled off that feat in 2022-23.
Victory over Inter Milan in Istanbul earned City their first Champions League title.
The triumph in Turkey also ended Guardiola’s personal 12-year wait to win the tournament again after claiming two Champions League titles at Barcelona.
The Blues became the first team in English top-flight history to win four titles in a row in 2024, but they missed out on a double when Manchester United pulled off a surprising win against their city rivals in the FA Cup final.
Guardiola started his management career at Barcelona B, winning the Spanish fourth division, before becoming Barcelona boss in 2008.
He won three successive league titles to start his reign, including a Treble with the Copa del Rey and Champions League in 2009.
Guardiola left Barcelona in 2012 and took a one-year sabbatical before joining Bayern, where he won three league titles and two German Cups in three seasons, achievements that served to increase his long-standing appeal to City.