Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak has reflected on the departure of Pep Guardiola from the club at the end of the recently-concluded season.
Guardiola ended his 10-year stay at the Etihad Stadium, where he revolutionized football and won 20 trophies during his time in charge.
The Spaniard arrived in 2016 after leaving Bayern Munich and guided the club to their first-ever UEFA Champions League title during a historic treble winning campaign in the 2022-23 season.
Speaking during an interview, Al Mubarak explained that Guardiola had tried to leave the club several times before he decided not to reverse his decision this time around.
“Over these years we have become close friends”, Al Mubarak said.
“And I will say, and I don’t know if he will admit it, but I consider myself his psychiatrist. Okay, so I had to help him over the years. Not in the good times – the good times is easy – it’s always the challenging part. And inevitably over these last 10 years we’ve had a lot of ups and some downs.
“And in the downs, he must have quit 100 times over these 10 years, just so you know, just for the record. There’s the story as you all know, the boy that cries wolf.
“In the case of Pep, when he says I quit, it doesn’t mean he’s quitting. You don’t take it that seriously – you have to manage him”, the Manchester City chairman added.
“He never thought he would stay more than four years, then more than five years. So, in his mind, even year four and five it was always ‘okay, how much more time?’
“And, you know, it always had to be done in the correct way. And I would say I always had a very clear understanding with Pep, because of that analogy of the boy that cried wolf.
“Whenever he quits or whenever he thinks it’s time, I will always convince him to come back, until the time where I know it’s actually the real time – where it’s actually the real moment Pep decides actually it’s time.
“There’s the moments that are not real and he actually needs someone to bring him back. And there was always going to be one moment where it was going to be real.
“And we reached that. And I knew it and that’s why I didn’t fight it. Throughout these years, I’ve always fought it and always brought him back because I knew that was always the answer.
“But in this particular one, I think he knew – and I knew that he knew – and that’s why it was the right thing for him and it was the natural thing. And I will tell you I did not fight this at all because I knew this was the time he actually meant it”, he concluded.
Manchester City have begun the search for Guardiola’s successor, with Enzo Maresca the leading candidate to be at the dugout next season.
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