Micah Richards has predicted that Roberto De Zerbi will replace Pep Guardiola as Manchester City’s manager.
The Spaniard is currently in the middle of his eighth season in charge of the Citizens and still has until the summer of 2025 before his contract expires.
Despite that, one pundit and former City player has weighed in on who he thinks will take the baton from Guardiola and manage the club after the 52-year-old departs.
Richards backs De Zerbi to replace Guardiola
Speaking in a recent edition of The Rest Is Football, Richards had this to say about who he feels could be the one to replace Guardiola at City.
He said: “De Zerbi, I am going to go with a big shout here, I am going to say the next Man City manager!”
Since being appointed as the Brighton & Hove Albion manager back in September last year, the 44-year-old has overlooked 56 games across all competitions, winning 26, drawing 12 and losing 18.
At this stage of the season, De Zerbi’s side are currently eighth in the league and have been able to make it out of the group stage of the Europa League.
Guardiola has been rather complimentary about the Brighton boss on previous occasions, describing him as a “unique” coach in terms of his style of play and “one of the most influential managers of the last 20 years.”
Regardless of whoever gets the role of managing City after Guardiola, it’s safe to say that they will have some big shoes to fill considering how successful the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager has been during his time at the Etihad Stadium.
Moving forward, if De Zerbi can continue to do well with Brighton, we feel that he will put himself in the frame and be in the conversation to be a potential candidate to replace Guardiola.
