Is the End Near?

For the first time in his City tenure, the end appears near for Pep Guardiola. While the club still remains on the pace to qualify for the Champions League, a trophy-less season slowly creeps into view.

With a litany of potential replacements, City may see this moment as the time to kickstart the new era. 

The end comes for everyone at the most random of times. Pep, who catapulted City into its final form, now sits vulnerable in the dugout.

Last season’s disappointments came as the club struggled to find any form, but no questions arose over the Spaniard. Despite now three transfer windows, no supposed solution seems likely to save the club’s season. Unlike their rivals, like Tottenham, who are experiencing a season from hell, City’s struggles fail to garner any sort of attention.

City’s issues hint at something deeper than a club going through a trophy drought. Pep’s system needs complete retooling, but does the manager have that time left? By achieving what was required, the club no longer needs Pep, making him its own casualty.  

As more options pop up for City, the clock continues to tick for Pep.

After having won all that there is to win at the highest level as a manager, where does the Spaniard go?

After winning the Champions League with City, Pep finally reached the mountain top with the club. Having essentially been handed the reins of the club at every level, that win should have acted as the perfect end to his time in Manchester.

Since their historic win, the club kept winning, but never seemed likely to dominate Europe. Each subsequent season saw Pep struggle to compete for both domestic and European glory. The club essentially surrendered itself to a form of mediocrity in which it can challenge for the Prem title yearly but never seems certain to be a Champions League challenger.

In some ways, this lull resembles the final years of Pep’s time at both Barça and Bayern. Despite unleashing the tiki-taka revolution, his Barça sides eventually petered out. At Bayern, however, the lack of any true challengers in Germany let him rack up trophies, but never reach European glory again.

The system he built at both clubs eventually ran out of gas, with rivals playing different systems to counter it. Even as City keeps throwing money at solutions, the returns are getting smaller and smaller with every transfer window.

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Panic buys, like the Omar Marmoush, attempt to act as bandages on a wound when surgery is required. No fix appears to be on the horizon, with the club struggling to find any consistency across all competitions. Without the core that helped propel Pep’s system back to the top of Europe, impossibly large holes remain unfilled.

In every way, Pep achieved what he was asked for when he joined almost a decade ago. Their academy pumps out Premier League players at a rate that only Chelsea used to match. Additionally, City, despite its detractors, now find themselves as one of Europe’s elite clubs.

However, time eventually comes for everyone.

The clock continues ticking down on Pep’s era, leaving the manager in a totally new place. 

Unlike in years past, should City decide to move past Pep, intriguing options do exist. Moving off the Spaniard gives those who run the club a chance to prove that City is bigger than any manager.

Something truly unique happened during Pep’s time with City. In football, the concept of coaching trees, where one coach or club produces clones, hardly exists. However, two of Pep’s branches already saw success.

While it seems totally improbable for Mikel Arteta to depart Arsenal, recently fired Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca may be the best long-term bet for City. The Italian came through City’s managerial system, capped off with a stint at affiliate club Palermo. Maresca plays a system different from Pep’s, but understands the club better than he did at Chelsea.

Maresca promises to be more of a plug-and-play manager than anything else, one that can easily be swapped in for Pep. While Arteta feels like a pipe dream, Pep’s former Italian assistant promises to be a worthy and low-cost gamble for City.

Another interesting option lies in Xabi Alonso, whose time with Real Madrid saw him unable to break through to the talented squad. One of the greatest players of his generation, the former Liverpool man oversaw a revolution at Leverkusen. He built one of the most exciting and fun clubs in Europe, favoring explosive, quick-attacking football.

Similar to Pep, the Spaniard emphasizes the system above all else, which failed at Real Madrid due to the club’s weird power dynamics. At City, which, under Pep, is completely guided by his system, it’s easier to envision Alonso avoiding Madrid’s pitfalls. Translating Alonso’s system to the Prem would require work, but so did Pep’s.

By giving City what they needed, in a way, Pep made himself expendable.

Especially now with such an intriguing crop of young managers, his future feels totally up in the air.

After winning the Champions League with City, the future between manager and club seemed to be more promising than any other situation. As the club struggled to return to the mountaintop, concerns over the long-term fit crept in.

Now with replacements lining up, could this finally be it for this marriage?