As much as Manchester City fans don’t want to accept it, Pep Guardiola is likely in his final years at the Etihad.
The Spaniard arrived at the club back in the summer of 2016 and has achieved truly special things with the club.
He has overseen a period of dominance in English football and is now widely regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time. For some, like Rio Ferdinand, he is the best ever.
Naturally, it is going to hit City fans extremely hard when the time comes for him to leave. That could well be in the next couple of years – his current contract finishes in the summer of 2025, which would take him up to nine years of service at the club.
It is already the longest he has ever spent at a club, so it seems unlikely that he would extend. It is not expected that he will pen fresh terms, according to a report from ESPN back in June.
So City officials now need to be thinking about life after Pep.
There’s one man who might just be worth considering – Xabi Alonso…
Xabi Alonso equals Pep Guardiola record with Bayer Leverkusen
Many expected Bayern Munich to absolutely run away with the Bundesliga this season after they snapped up Harry Kane.
Kane has started amazingly on a personal note and Bayern have also been really good, taking 29 points from a possible 33 so far and not yet losing a game.
But Bayern actually find themselves in second place in the table at the moment, with Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen the league leaders.
Leverkusen have taken 31 points from a possible 33. That haul has seen Alonso equal the record Pep set (most points after 11 games) with Bayern in the 2015/16 season.
His side haven’t quite been as lethal as Bayern, who’ve hit 42 goals already. But 34 goals scored in their 11 games is still very impressive.
City officials must keep close eye on Alonso at Bayer Leverkusen
Alonso is doing an incredible job in Germany, just as his fellow Spaniard Pep did before him with Bayern.
He’s been with the club now since October 2022 and has been a breath of fresh air at the Bay Arena. In his first season, after coming in after league eight Bundesliga games, he took the team from second bottom to a sixth-placed finish. He also guided them to the semi-finals of the Europa League.
This term, Leverkusen are top of the league and are also top of their Europa League group by six points.
In total, it’s 17 games played, with 16 victories and one draw. They are yet to lose, and have scored 59 goals and conceded just 14. These are incredible numbers.
There has already been some talk about Alonso perhaps taking over from Carlo Ancelotti at Real Madrid in the future. Alonso, of course, spent some of his playing career at the Bernabeu. Ancelotti himself has already said he has a desire to see the 41-year-old succeed him.
But City officials need to keep a close eye on Alonso with Pep’s contract winding down.
He’s got Leverkusen playing some absolutely scintillating football, a style that is not dissimilar to what City play under Pep.
Pep likely isn’t leaving City until at least the summer of 2025, which means Alonso could well join another club before then. But it is surely worth City officials paying close attention to his managerial career, because it seems like he could be a genuinely great fit at the Etihad in the future.
