Pep Guardiola's Future at Manchester City: Is the End Near?

The banners will still be waving, the noise will still roll around the Etihad, and Pep Guardiola will still be prowling that familiar technical area. On the surface, nothing has changed.

Behind the scenes, everything might be about to.

Multiple internal voices at Manchester City now believe Guardiola will walk away at the end of the season, according to a detailed report from The Athletic’s Sam Lee. After a decade of reshaping the club, the sense inside parts of the operation is that this could be the final week of the most transformative tenure in City’s history.

The club’s official line remains firm: no decision has been made, no farewell has been signed off, and the hierarchy is working on the assumption their Catalan architect stays. Until Guardiola tells them otherwise, they insist the future is unwritten.

But the clues are starting to stack up.

A Trophy, a Denial, and a Different Story in the Corridors

Forty-eight hours ago, Guardiola lifted his 20th trophy as City manager, a landmark reached in his 10th year in charge. City edged Chelsea 1-0 in the FA Cup final, Antoine Semenyo delivering the only goal on a tense afternoon at Wembley.

Before the game, Guardiola bristled at the idea this might be his last trip to the national stadium as City boss, snapping back “no way” when asked. It sounded emphatic. It sounded like a man not yet ready to close the book.

Yet in the corridors and offices that orbit the first team, the mood is less bullish. While the public gaze stays locked on a title race going down to the wire with Arsenal, the club is quietly bracing for what would be the most seismic managerial change it has ever faced.

This isn’t just about a manager leaving. It’s about the potential end of an era that has defined the club’s identity from top to bottom.

Buenaventura’s Exit: A Telling Sign

One development has sharpened the feeling that something is shifting. Lorenzo Buenaventura, Guardiola’s long-term fitness coach and close confidant, is set to leave at the end of the season. His impending departure, first reported by The Athletic, is being read by some who know the pair well as a significant indicator that Guardiola could follow him out.

Inside the first-team structure, several sources across different departments are now said to be working on the assumption that Guardiola will step down when this campaign ends. Preparations, quiet but real, have been put in place in case the manager does decide to go.

City, publicly, won’t go there. Privately, they know they have to be ready.

Timing the Goodbye

If Guardiola is to leave, the question becomes not just “if” but “how” and “when”.

According to the report, the current thinking at City is to let the title race breathe before any major announcement. Arsenal’s midweek clash with Burnley, followed by City’s trip to Bournemouth 24 hours later, could define the shape of the run-in. Those results may also dictate the timing of any official word on Guardiola’s future.

If the Premier League is effectively settled by midweek, confirmation of his departure could arrive before the final-day showdown against Aston Villa at the Etihad. That would turn an already charged afternoon into something else entirely: a possible title decider and a farewell to the greatest manager the club has ever had, all rolled into one.

If the race stays alive, City may choose silence and focus, leaving the speculation to swirl while Guardiola chases yet another league crown.

Life After Pep: An Impossible Job?

For all the tactical diagrams and succession plans sketched out in boardrooms, replacing Guardiola is not a normal football problem. It is an emotional one as much as a strategic one.

He has dictated City’s style, standards, and mentality for a decade. The way they train, the way they recruit, the way they think about the game – all of it carries his imprint. Any successor will inherit not just a squad, but a philosophy and an expectation level that borders on unforgiving.

Preparations for that next step have reportedly been mapped out by figures such as Director of Football Hugo Viana. Names will be floated, profiles analysed, scenarios tested. Among the possibilities, Enzo Maresca has already been mentioned in wider discussions as a potential future leader of this team.

Whoever comes next will be tasked with maintaining a machine built in Guardiola’s image, without the man who designed it standing on the touchline.

One Last Glance at the Dugout?

For now, the Etihad’s focus remains split between the title and the touchline.

If Arsenal slip against Burnley and City do their job at Bournemouth on Tuesday night, that final meeting with Aston Villa could become something extraordinary: a chance to seal another Premier League trophy and, quite possibly, to say goodbye.

In that scenario, every gesture from the 55-year-old on the final day will be studied. Every clap to the crowd, every embrace with his staff, every glance up at the stands will carry extra weight for supporters who know this might be the last time they see him directing their team in sky blue.

City insist nothing is decided. The table, the fixtures, and Guardiola himself still hold the answers.

But as the season edges towards its climax, one question hangs over the Etihad more heavily than any title race: are these the final days of the Guardiola era in Manchester?