Manchester City “will be interested” in replacing Josep Guardiola as their title-winning manager when the time comes for him to step down.
Guardiola assesses Man City’s title chances
City travel to Aston Villa in the Premier League this weekend and will be looking to keep in touch with Arsenal, particularly Erling Haaland’s recent form of form.
Asked about the status of the title race on Friday, Guardiola was somewhat sarcastic in his response, but also felt positive about the team’s current situation.
“Our mentality and body language is in the right place and that will stabilize us, but we need to play better for 95 minutes. In the first two or three games we were definitely eliminated and Liverpool are already over. And now it looks like Liverpool are over and I’m going to say they’ll be back.”
“I’ve said it many times, I know all the pundits, I know all the experts, I know all the ex-players and they all know what’s going to happen after five games. I can’t do that. I always wait 10, 15 games to know exactly what’s going on, but obviously I think Liverpool, Arsenal will be there, someone else will be there and hopefully we’ll be there.”
It remains to be seen how long Guardiola will remain in charge of City, but he will eventually need to be replaced and there are some interesting names being floated as options.
Title-winning manager appointed to replace Guardiola
Contribution and broadcast to Sky Germany sports witnessDidi Hamann has revealed that Vincent Kompany could one day replace Guardiola at Manchester City, and Bayern’s recent contract extension could be designed to avoid interest from the Etihad.
“FC Bayern extended Kompany’s contract until 2029 even though he still had 20 months left on his contract. So the extension was not mandatory, but I can understand why they did it.
“Bayern are probably mindful that Manchester City will be interested in Kompany at some point when Josep Guardiola retires. It will be interesting to see if there is a clause in Kompany’s contract. Christoph Freund did not reveal anything about it on Wednesday night, but he did not rule it out completely either.”
Kompany is a legend at City and is currently the Bundesliga champions with Bayern Munich, making him the obvious candidate to succeed Guardiola at the Etihad.
The 39-year-old is an exciting manager who is constantly improving and recent comments from Bayern youngster Tom Bischoff underline his influence on Bayern, who have enjoyed the best start to a season in their storied history.
“I’ve rarely seen a coach who has so much control over the team and at the same time brings so much fun to the training sessions and the team as he does. The first three weeks were really crazy. He taught me something about almost every move. I almost thought, ‘That’s enough.'” It was frustrating, but looking back, I have to say it helped me a lot. ”
City fans expect Guardiola to stay for years to come and the Spaniard has shown little sign of wanting to leave, but assuming Kompany continues to impress at Bayern, he should be looked at as a viable option.
