Pep Guardiola's reason for quitting rings alarm bells

If Pep Guardiola’s past comments are anything to go by, then his Manchester City exit may not be that far away.

Nevermind, the contract extension that the king of the Etihad signed earlier this term, tying him to the club until 2027. Or the fact that this is very much a club built in his image, where he has enjoyed dominion during his entire tenure.

City won’t sack him. We know that. No matter how bad these next few months could get, they won’t bin the six-time Premier League winner. They think he’s the best manager in the world. Only in the past two months has that even looked in question. But ahead of the Boxing Day visit of Everton, City are a mess. And Guardiola, for once, doesn’t look like he can locate the answer - at least not yet.

Saturday’s 2-1 loss at Aston Villa - particularly painful given the role Morgan Rogers, once a City youngster, played - meant Guardiola’s men suffered a ninth defeat in their past 12 matches. It is by an absolute distance the worst spell of the Catalan’s entire managerial career.

Questions have been asked about why.

Guardiola himself points to the injury suffered by Rodri, leading to his prolonged absence, as key. But pulling out one wooden stick shouldn’t make the entire Jenga pile fall - especially not at this level.

From the outside, the biggest issue looks like this side is old. Key players have been allowed to get old together - in Ilkay Gundogan they even brought one back - and some players who have been sold haven’t been adequately replaced, most notably Julian Alvarez; regardless of him wanting to go, losing a guy that gives you 19 goals last season and not getting in a replacement at all is going to be a problem.

And the big thing with elder statesmen and the same manager leading them throughout is that the same messages won’t work forever. The more a sportsman hears the same message, the less it breaks through. Eventually, it just won’t work.

It’s something Guardiola himself knows. It’s why he left Barcelona back in 2012 after they’d won everything and then, in his fourth season, had a drop off.

Image: Offside via Getty Images) Offside via Getty Images)

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"We were incredibly successful," said Guardiola in a 2014 interview with Audi. "Winning 14 trophies in only four years was the greatest period in the club's history. But gradually I found it more and more difficult to motivate myself and to motivate the team. That is when you know it is time to walk away."

The team needed to hear new messages, every bit as much as it needed a new messenger. Familiarity breeds contempt after all.

Perhaps the likes of Kyle Walker, Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Ederson and John Stones need a new message. So far Guardiola's mantra has been 'keep working, focus on the details and it'll come'.

Image: Getty Images) Getty Images)

After Erling Haaland pointed towards himself and his team-mates after the Villa loss, Guardiola this week said: “This situation is new for all of us. It’s about us, everyone. The guys are running and making an effort more than ever. People say we are not running, fighting, it’s this player, this manager - it is not about that."

So, it seems, he still believes he is the right man for the job. But perhaps he isn't. And perhaps they do just need a new messenger.

If that is indeed the case and Guardiola senses thus, don’t expect him to stick around. That contract won’t stop him and the club won’t force him to remain if he insists his race is run.

The question is whether he can find a new message to break through and snap his side’s awful recent spell?

Or whether, like at Camp Nou, he eventually feels too weighed down and heads out the door of his own accord.

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