Pep Guardiola will tick past a decade in charge at Manchester City after putting pen to paper on his fourth contract extension at the Etihad Stadium.
Guardiola has presided over an unprecedented period of success in east Manchester but this renewal feels different.
In 2018, Guardiola bolted a couple more years onto his initial three-year deal in Manchester in the afterglow of City's incredible 100-point season in the Premier League. This latest extension is the third in succession to come during November international breaks, following fresh terms in 2020 and 2022.
The latter arrived as City gathered themselves for a push towards the sporting immortality of a 2022/23 treble, a champion team recently enhanced by Erling Haaland's gargantuan goalscoring efforts.
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The mood music is a little different this time around, and not just because of four consecutive defeats across all competitions amid an injury crisis. Guardiola's preference for working with a small senior squad is beginning to look vulnerable as a fantastic group of players who have done it all, especially in midfield, grow old together. If he handed over the City squad in its current state to a new coach, no doubt hasty surgery would follow. The past two summer transfer windows have fallen short overall.
There is also the heavy wider context of the Premier League's 115 charges case against City. Guardiola's new deal means he will be around for the aftermath of that seismic verdict, whichever way it tilts. Then there will be the intriguing prospect of refitting the squad alongside incoming director of football Hugo Viana, who will replace Guardiola's great ally Txiki Begiristain.
Here, we look at how the land lies with Guardiola's City squad and what issues need to be addressed. These are surely his final years at Eastlands as he looks to secure his overarching goal of a legacy to compare with the one his mentor Johan Cruyff left behind at Barcelona.
Pep Guardiola's new contract: Man City rebuild
Goalkeepers
On the face of it, this shouldn't be much of an area of concern. There is a strong case to be made that Ederson has been Guardiola's most important and transformative signing at City and the Brazil international has been in fine form this season as the unfamiliar chaos in front of him has resulted in an increased workload.
There was Saudi Pro League interest in the 31-year-old last summer but the most likely disruption to City's goalkeeping department is a potential departure for Stefan Ortega. After arriving on a free transfer from Arminia Bielefeld in 2022, the 32-year-old's stock has risen to the extent he earned a maiden Germany call-up this month. Quite simply, goalkeepers of that pedigree do not remain as a No. 2 for long.
Defenders
The September 2021 signing of Ruben Dias also ranks as one of Guardiola's most important. Since bringing in the Portugal centre-back from Benfica, City have not failed to win the Premier League. Dias sets the standard for an elite group of centre-backs who are also comfortable in full-back positions. Josko Gvardiol will be a mainstay for years to come and Manuel Akanji has proved to be one of Begiristain's most inspired pieces of business.
John Stones and Nathan Ake are also exemplary performers but their repeated injury niggles give pause in the context of Guardiola's purposefully small squad. If one moves on it would create space for rapidly rising youngster Jahmai Simpson-Pusey.
Full-back is a different matter. Club captain Kyle Walker has been an incredible servant to but a heavy workload last season has contributed to him looking his 34 years. Gvardiol and Ake have split left-back duties since the start of last season, with Walker the only true specialist in his position. Teenage protege Rico Lewis has played a lot at right-back this season and feels almost like a lab-grown Guardiola footballer.
However, during his time in England, Guardiola has trended towards wanting more physical defenders, meaning the diminutive Lewis probably has a longer-term future in midfield. The City boss' innovations in how he uses full-backs is one of his big legacies in football. It feels like time to dream it all up again with fresh faces.
Midfield
Guardiola's greatest teams – from the Busquest-Xavi-Iniesta axis at Barcelona to Fernandinho-Silva-De Bruyne in his early years at City, up to and including the recent Rodri-fuelled version — are defined by their midfields. The Ballon d'Or winner being sidelined with an ACL injury this is clearly an issue right now, but in truth, their problems run deeper.
Kevin De Bruyne is out of contract at the end of the season, meaning his own glorious time in Manchester might be at a natural end point. Bernardo Silva, Ilkay Gundogan and Mateo Kovacic are all over 30 and have increasingly found themselves overrun in Rodri's absence. Matheus Nunes has finally enjoyed a run of games on the left wing, which kind of underlines how much it takes for Guardiola to trust players with central midfield duties.
Phil Foden's long-term future is surely closer to the centre of the field and the tenacious Lewis could be a long-term Silva replacement, even though — in a common theme with many of City's acts of squad renewal of late — he lacks the goal threat of the man he would be replacing.
Kalvin Phillips is still technically a City player but his Etihad ordeal shows how hard it is to sign specialist cover for Rodri. The alternative bits-and-pieces approach of several players taking on parts of his duties this season has pros and cons. It feels like midfield is where Guardiola will have to most radically re-imagine things, accepting a little less control in possession and granting a little more trust to those in the positions he places the greatest emphasis upon.
Those conversations are likely to be Viana's first major challenge. They could also result in his first galactico, as links between Bayern Leverkusen star Florian Wirtz and City refuse to go away.
Attack
Centre-forward. Next.
Erling Haaland is far from the Guardiola archetype but he continues to score goals by the bucketload. It will be fascinating to see the next stage of development in how star player and coach align, while the potential of life without De Bruyne could be Haaland's biggest challenge so far.
However, bringing in adequate cover for the most prolific centre-forward in the world is a hard sell. City landed on their feet by getting two seasons of Julian Alvarez, but the Argentina star understandably wanted to go to Atletico Madrid to be the main man. Haaland's pre-eminence basically creates the Ederson-Ortega problem at the other end of the field.
Perhaps a natural right-winger also comfortable playing inside would be the way to go. Real Madrid's Rodrygo was fleetingly mentioned in dispatches with City last summer and that would certainly be an earth-shaking acquisition.
It might be time for such a big gun because, since losing Riyad Mahrez and then Alvarez, City's goals burden has fallen too heavily on Haaland's hulking shoulders. Jeremy Doku and Savinho are livewire, exciting talents with their best years ahead of them but their goal contributions need to increase. There were high hopes around academy graduate Oscar Bobb before he suffered a broken leg on the eve of this season. He will also look to take some of the weight from his Norwegian compatriot Haaland when he returns.
Then there is the curious case of Jack Grealish. City are fairly clearly a better and more complete side with the England international fit and on form on the left flank. However, this increasingly feels like a bogus argument given Grealish's form and fitness have not consistently aligned since the treble season. Now we know Guardiola is staying, the £100million man must prove he deserves to as well.
