Pep Guardiola has visited Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour in Abu Dhabi after the conclusion of the 2023/24 season.
This was a typical meeting between a football club’s owner and manager; it was a celebration of a new season, adorned with silverware, and it usually happens once a year at the latest.
Pep Guardiola’s trip to Abu Dhabi to give Sheikh Mansour the newest trophies from Manchester City is not out of the ordinary, and it was perceived as a celebration of the team’s fourth consecutive Premier League title. Mansour and Guardiola stood for the cameras, raising four fingers in the air as they did so. When Guardiola entered the room to give him the most recent Premier League trophy, the owner grinned broadly.
Along with Khaldoon Al Mubarak, Ferran Soriano, and Txiki Begiristain, the five men were in familiar surroundings when they sat down to discuss. An elegant setting for an end-of-season debriefing and a preview of the upcoming campaign, albeit there might have been one or two unspoken elephants in the room.
First, there are the 115 Premier League charges against City, which are directly connected to the club’s financial transactions with Abu Dhabi and the ongoing legal action that the league is facing. These topics, as well as their consequences for transfer budgets, future planning, and contingencies, will undoubtedly come up in the conversations.
This second meeting won’t change anything in that regard because City maintains its innocence of the claims and was confident enough to file the lawsuit.
According to reports, Sheikh Mansour told Guardiola to keep aiming for success, indicating that the owner is still fully committed to City. Mansour reportedly informed Guardiola “that City’s title wins serve as motivation for the club to continue its progress,” according to the National.
Naturally, these are quite typical remarks to make public. Robust enough to garner attention, yet imprecise enough to avoid getting into the finer points of the discussion.
But, they do restate to Guardiola what would be expected of him should he agree to a contract extension that goes beyond the summer of 2019—a project that appears to be moving forward without interruption at the top. The second big issue is Guardiola’s contract predicament.
In a year, Guardiola’s contract will expire, and he is reportedly not going to renew. He will allow himself time, as he has in the past, to make his decision, acknowledging that he is closer to departing City than staying for another seven seasons. He gets together with Mansour every summer, whenever it’s feasible, and City, as they did in January of this year, will try to make it to Abu Dhabi for a midseason training camp. Before agreeing to his most recent contract, Guardiola visited the Gulf state for negotiations in November 2022; he later credited those conversations for the extension.
Guardiola’s contract was undoubtedly discussed this week, and perhaps some understanding was reached on both ends. However, it’s possible that Mansour and Khaldoon would have been better served by merely telling him that their support to him is unwavering rather than pressuring for a decision right now.
When the time comes, the manager will have all the information he needs to make the best decision if they have made it clear to him where they stand.