Pep Guardiola has ruled out a move to Manchester United when his contract expires with City - despite previously admitting that he could see himself coaching there one day.
The Spanish mastermind has won six Premier League titles, two FA Cups, four League Cups and a coveted Champions League trophy with City since joining from Bayern Munich eight years ago - but is currently in the last 12 months of his contract. And sources expect Guardiola to leave the Etihad at the end of the 2024/25 campaign.
Two years before joining the Citizens, Guardiola admitted that he could see himself taking charge at Manchester United. He'd even previously had a request from Sir Alex Ferguson to call him about a possible job.
Guardiola's close friend and journalist Marti Perarnau wrote of the coach in his book Pep Confidential: "I like this atmosphere. I could see myself coaching here one day."
Perarau added: "Pep liked the setup at Sabener Strasse (Bayern's training facility) despite the fact it was smaller than Barca's training ground and had fewer technical facilities. The Catalan was impressed and told [his personal assistant] Manuel Estiarte privately: 'I like this place. I could see myself coaching here one day'.
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"Pep had said something very similar a few months before, at Manchester United. The day after beating Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final, Guardiola and Estiarte travelled to Manchester to watch their next opponents in action. It was May 4, 2011, and the pair sat together in the stands of Old Trafford watching Sir Alex Ferguson's team beat Schalke 4-1.
"Once again Pep had turned to his friend and said: 'I like this atmosphere. I could see myself coaching here one day.' Guardiola has always felt a deep admiration, almost veneration, for the legendary teams and players of Europe."
Sir Alex Ferguson wanted Pep Guardiola to phone him (Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)DON'T SCRAP REPLAYS!
In the book 'Leading', Ferguson spoke of how he and Guardiola actually met ahead of the Scotsman's last season at Old Trafford in 2011. He wrote: "I had dinner with Pep Guardiola in New York in 2012, but couldn't make him any direct proposal because retirement was not on my agenda at that point.
"He had already won an enviable number of trophies with Barcelona and I admired him greatly. I asked Pep to phone me before he accepted an offer from another club, but he didn't and wound up joining Bayern Munich in July 2013."
However, Guardiola reportedly ruled out ever making a move to City's most fierce rivals in 2020, saying: "After training City I won't train United. It is like I would never train Real Madrid. Definitely not. I'll be in the Maldives if I don't have any offers. Maybe not the Maldives because it doesn't have any golf courses."
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