Ten more years for Pep Guardiola at Manchester City? Don’t rule it out

The crowning of Manchester City as European champions and treble winners may cause Pep Guardiola to ask himself, again, a familiar question: how much longer can he manage his gilded side?

One answer is found in the irresistible quality of the 2022‑23 Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup victors. The team that Guardiola built is so dominant and, seemingly, so unstoppable that it is a natural fount of the energy and drive required to rejuvenate the Catalan for the foreseeable future.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, after receiving rippling applause in the Ataturk Stadium’s media room following the 1-0 defeat of Internazionale, Guardiola was an intriguing blend of exhaustion and defiance. “Don’t ask me about next season,” the 52-year-old said before, later, insisting that “knowing me” there will be no falling away when the defence of their titles begins in August.

By then the Community Shield may have been added, the European Super Cup final versus Sevilla in Athens will be four days away, and Guardiola’s eye will be on the Club World Cup in December as this trophy-addict tilts at a clean sweep of honours.

Yet when Guardiola’s tenure might reach its endgame is a poser he has tossed about more than once during his seven-year reign. At the start of the season just ended, 12 months remained on his contract, and there was surprise from confidantes when he signed a fresh two-year deal during the World Cup. When he took over back in the summer of 2016 there had been the sense of a perfectionist coach who would remain in charge for a finite time – then a three-year contract.

This, remember, was the man who had just completed a three-year span in charge of Bayern Munich, preceded by a 12-month sabbatical, and whose