'I would love to stay': Pep Guardiola keen to extend Manchester City deal

Pep Guardiola is keen to extend his contract as Manchester City manager beyond next summer but is yet to commence any discussions with the club.

The 49-year-old signed a three-year deal when taking over in summer 2016 and led City to two Premier League titles, three League Cups and one FA Cup. While Guardiola extended terms for an extra year in May 2018, he insisted a new deal will only be offered if he proves deserving of one this season.

“I would love to stay longer here,” he said. “It is a place I love to be but I have to deserve. This club achieved standards in the last decade but we have to maintain that and I have to deserve it. I am going to see if I deserve it this season in terms of how the club goes forward and improves.”

Guardiola added that the club’s executive has not informed him he is on trial this year. “No, this is [in] my mind. We didn’t speak with the club in these terms,” he said. “They didn’t push me from day one to today in September. They allow me to do my job the best I can and with all my staff and the players and this is going to continue to do.

“They didn’t tell me you have to do this or you have to that or you have to win this or you have to win that. They told me to play. In my feeling, I know the standards of the club and if I don’t achieve the standards, I probably don’t deserve so I have to win to extend my contract.”

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Guardiola was pressed that there must be successful to be awarded a new contract. “It depends on what is for you success,” he countered.

Earlier this month Phil Foden drew criticism for being sent home by England after he and Manchester United’s Mason Greenwood broke Covid rules by inviting two women to the team hotel.

“I am pretty sure Phil is going to make a good season. He knows he make a mistake [but] stop giving too much advice to the other people,” Guardiola said. “If every one of us put the same high expectations on ourselves as we put on others, it would be better. So stop to give advice to others and look to what you have done in the past.”

source: theguardian.com