{"id":767833,"date":"2026-02-16T08:19:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T08:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/767833\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T08:19:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T08:19:12","slug":"manchester-city-news-clear-favourite-emerges-to-succeed-pep-guardiola","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/767833\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester City news: &#8216;Clear favourite&#8217; emerges to succeed Pep Guardiola"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/people\/pep-guardiola\/\" title=\"Pep Guardiola\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pep Guardiola<\/a>&#8216;s future at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/football\/man-city\/\" title=\"Manchester City\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Manchester City<\/a> remains uncertain, a clear favourite has already been identified as his successor.<\/p>\n<p>Could an era at Manchester City be coming to an end? In post since 2016, Pep Guardiola&#8217;s future is indeed uncertain. Recently, TeamTalk revealed that the Manchester hierarchy are beginning to prepare for the succession of their Spanish tactician, whose contract expires in June 2027.<\/p>\n<p>The former FC Barcelona manager is not expected to extend his deal. A departure is therefore anticipated for next summer or at the end of his contract in a year and a half.<\/p>\n<p>Who will succeed Pep Guardiola at Manchester City? A shortlist of 7 managers has been revealed, including Xabi Alonso, Andoni Iraola and Vincent Kompany.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-img-id=\"154936\" class=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/https:\/\/sportsmole-media-prod.s3.gra.io.cloud.ovh.net\/uploads\/2025\/11\/imago1069587770-692634bc667341.webp\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 Imago \/ News Images<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/people\/enzo-maresca\/\" title=\"Enzo Maresca\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Enzo Maresca<\/a>: The ideal successor to Pep Guardiola at Manchester City?<\/p>\n<p>This weekend, Fabrizio Romano used the occasion of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/football\/spurs\/news\/three-players-will-benefit-most-as-spurs-confirm-tudor-as-interim-head-coach_592045.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Igor Tudor&#8217;s appointment at Tottenham<\/a> to provide an update on this matter. According to the Italian journalist, there have been no discussions between Enzo Maresca and Spurs.<\/p>\n<p>The former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmole.co.uk\/football\/chelsea\/\" title=\"Chelsea\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chelsea<\/a> manager &#8220;remains the favourite candidate to become the next Manchester City manager&#8230; if Pep Guardiola decides to leave.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It must be said that Maresca has the ideal profile to succeed Guardiola and ensure continuity in the Manchester project. The Italian was indeed the Spaniard&#8217;s assistant at Manchester City during the 2022-23 season, before taking charge of Leicester and Chelsea, with whom he notably won the Europa League.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to his interesting experience, Enzo Maresca therefore knows how Pep Guardiola operates, the Premier League and also the English club itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While Pep Guardiola&#8216;s future at Manchester City remains uncertain, a clear favourite has already been identified as his&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":767834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,4230,393,68644,94,707,2826,4884,2465,22138,7126,101,4151,93,68303,10938,1068,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-767833","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-cycling","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-epl","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-formula-1","14":"tag-golf","15":"tag-great-britain","16":"tag-manchester","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-olympics","19":"tag-premier-league","20":"tag-rugby","21":"tag-sport","22":"tag-sports-mole","23":"tag-teams","24":"tag-tennis","25":"tag-uk","26":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116079333564701510","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=767833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/767834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}