With the 2023/24 Premier League campaign approaching a thrilling climax, it could be a defining season for the defending champions Manchester City, as they are locked in a three-way title race with Liverpool and Arsenal. But notably, the current season signals the penultimate campaign before City boss Pep Guardiola says goodbye to the club, as his contract is due to expire in June 2025. Given that rival Jurgen Klopp has already announced his impending departure from Liverpool in June this year, Soccer Laduma’s Lukhanyo Mtuta discusses the increasingly inevitable end of Guardiola’s era at the Etihad Stadium and how this season could prove decisive in the Spaniard’s exit from the club.
All eras have an end, Pep is no exception
It is a general rule of life that all things come to an end, and it would be hard to believe that any manager’s tenure at a club would be an exception to the rule. While managerial ins and outs have seemingly been more frequent over the better part of the last decade, there are still instances where coaches retain their roles for an almost unusually long time. Many might think of Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United and Arsene Wenger at Arsenal when it comes to longevity at a club, but one of the more outstanding examples of such in the modern era is Diego Simeone at Atletico Madrid, who has been in charge of the Spanish giants since December 2011. The reality is that managerial stints that last over 10 years have never been so rare, particularly in the elite leagues, where results tend to dictate how long a tactician stays at a club. One side to this coin is that elite managers can, themselves, decide when to depart. This is the case for Klopp at Liverpool after he surprisingly confirmed in January that he has decided that he will step down from the helm at Anfield at the end of 2023/24. The German is set to end a glittering eight-and-a-half-year spell in Merseyside and for many staunch Reds fans, it seemed like the day of his farewell would never come, as Klopp figuratively exists in the hearts of many cult-like supporters. For Guardiola, however, the road to the end is also in sight and it could be quite interesting how this season could influence his decision.
