Like everyone else on here, I've been hoping all along - and still do - that Pep will stay. However, everything now seems to point the other way. I've thought it obvious for some time that our legend was seriously considering going and, although he could think better of it, there's been a refusal among some City fans to look that in the face because we as a group have an emotional investment in him staying. I've resigned myself to him going, though of course I'd be delighted if he again confounds expectations.
I don't see how the club could have handled it differently, really, and a leak at some point was inevitable. Unless MCFC were to refuse to prepare for a possible departure until it happened, which would be a dereliction of duty by the executives, various people would get wind of those preparations and some would be outside City with no particular duty to the club. It's almost impossible to keep a lid on things in those circumstances. In fact, the first leak came months ago when Maresca, allegedly contractually obliged to do so, informed Chelsea that he'd had discussions with City and the London club then briefed the press that this was a factor in his dismissal there.
Anyway, assuming Pep's departuew finally comes to pass, it's a moment we've long being dreading. But, with regard to his tenure, remember the words of the cliche: don't be sad it's over, be glad it happened. It's truly been an honour to have witnessed it.
Some might not admit it now, but it took a time for quite a few on here to take to Josep and his fellow "Barca boys" in senior positions at the club. I can honestly say, though, that I was sold from the off. My late father was crippled by chronic rheumatoid arthritis for decades but it worsened in the closing years of his life and the final home game where he was well enough for us to attend together was one of Pep's early matches, a 4-0 win over Bournemouth in September 2016. I felt that the quality of the football we played that day was ahead of anything I'd seen in English football before then. There were bumps in the road during that initial season, but I was confident from that first viewing of Guardiola's City onwards that something truly special was taking shape.
I couldn't have imagined that it would feature quite as many trophies as it has or that it would last a whole decade. I'd have been confident that Pep would see out his initial three-year contract, but would have felt lucky had he stayed even one or two years beyond that point. As it turned out, my dad died in the summer of 2021, so at that point I was just grateful he'd lived long enough for us to witness those first five years together and gleefully discuss what had happened in our regular phone calls. When we then won the treble, claiming what had previously seemed an elusive Champions League in the process, I expected Pep then to ride off into the sunset - how could he top such an achievement?
We've been blessed that he stayed to claim the historic fourth title in a row and beyond. However, his final gift to the club - and perhaps one of the most valuable of the countless many - has been to stay around for two more years and oversee a rebuild. In my view he leaves an exciting, younger team which, as evidenced by two domestic Cups and a minimum of second place this season, has the capability to move forward and ensure the post-Pep era, if inevitably less gilded, nonetheless remains studded by successes.
A final point on our beloved eccentric genius. In his early days, a frequent criticism on here was that Pep somehow didn't "get" the club. I never saw that as fair, but it's not something you ever read now and rightly so. Despite online allegations from bitter, rancid, empty-headed cunts that we're all plastics and our club's soulless, there's a unique and special character at this place, and Pep shows those comments up for the bullshit they are by truly having become one of us. In that sense, it's a pity that he won't be in post when, I hope and trust, the club is largely vindicated following the publication of the verdict in the so-called "115" case.
So it's genuinely been a privilege, baldy. I have a greater depth of feeling for you than is really healthy for a rapidly ageing grandfather of three born in the sixties to love another man he hasn't met.
As for whoever comes next, there's bound to be a feeling that there's been a considerable drop in quality compared with the guy who's just left. It's almost impossible to perform to the same level as a man many of us would class as truly the greatest of all time, the best manager our club has ever had and probably ever will have. It's like having to take the stage after Frank Sinatra or .
So who should the club invite to take on this difficult task? Well, the overriding point is that it needs to be someone who, in terms of style, is a reasonably close fit with Guardiola and his methods. The club has spent the last couple of seasons bringing in a considerable number of new players at great cost with a view to playing the Pep way and to rip that blueprint up would be highly unwise. We need someone who can pick up what the legend has bequeathed and run with it.
This means we can disregard big names such as Jose Mourinho (even if he weren't bound for Real and hadn't become considerably less "special" in recent years) as well as the likes of Antonio Conte and Diego Simeone, both linked with departures from their current posts this summer. All of these men have long experience of being in high-profile jobs and have won plenty of trophies, but they're pragmatists who'd ruin this squad.
Carlo Ancelotti is a vastly experienced serial winner who's well acquainted with what it's like to claim major prizes, but has made the transition into international management and signed a lengthy contract. Zinedine Zidane is a great fit for Madrid but it's questionable whether his skills, ostensibly more in the field of man management than coaching, readily transfer elsewhere and he's reportedly waiting in any case for the job with the French national team. On a lower rung, Oliver Glasner has a fine track record but lacks experience at clubs with comparable expectations. In any event, each of these three isn't a cultural fit, either.
To identify the most desirable contenders who do tick the right boxes in cultural terms, then, we need to look at - in addition to the football their teams play - a pedigree of winning the biggest prizes with experience of coaching huge clubs with stellar expectations. The two who stand out are Luis Enrique and Hansi Flick, themselves both Champions League and treble winners who have CVs featuring successful stints at continental powerhouses. Then there's Vincent Kompany, in the earlier stages of his coaching career but with an impressive body of work already taking shape at Bayern, whose history with our club makes him a compelling candidate.
Unfortunately, all three of these contenders are with top-tier European clubs already, residing in cities that are wonderful to live in, especially if you earn the money they make, and unsurprisingly all are reportedly extending their contacts to stay where they are. I don't underestimate the attractiveness of City as a project, but it's easy to see why these guys are currently happy where they are and I fully follow their logic if they think that having to follow possibly the greatest of all time makes taking our job this summer the right option for them at the wrong time.
Jurgen Klopp has been mentioned and might be an intriguing choice in some ways and I think he might work better stylistically than many probably suspect. However, he's already stepped back from day-to-day club management and seems not to be seeking a way back in. Then there's his emotional attachment to the team that's been our biggest, most enduring rival in Pep's time in charge. If he does take another job in a domestic league, it surely won't be with another Premier League outfit.
Thus, the coaches with proven elite pedigrees (by which I mean Mourinho, Conte, Simeone, Ancelotti, Zidane, Enrique, Flick and Klopp, plus Kompany, an exceptional choice specifically for us) are either clearly inappropriate or simply unavailable to fill our vacancy at this stage even if, like many, I hope for Kompany to return "home" at some point in the future. But for now, we're looking at candidates whose lack of experience at the very highest managerial levels means that, in terms of what they've achieved so far in their careers, they're occupying the tier one down from the men I've quoted. In other words, any of them represents a risk.
So who could we focus on to come and take Pep's promising new team forward? Xabi Alonso is clearly a talent and recruiting him certainly represents a coup for Chelsea, but his reputation is elevated by one particularly stunning season at Leverkusen in which he deployed a tactical set-up for which our squad is arguably ill-equipped and he bombed at Madrid, admittedly a unique environment. Cesc Fabregas has impressed at Como and Andoni Iraola has flourished at Bournemouth, but those are settings with minimal expectations that differ hugely from those Pep's successor will face. Marco Silva, meanwhile, was linked with Chelsea before they alighted on Alonso, but does he really have the right pedigree for us?
So who else is there? Unai Emery has prospered with Aston Villa but his successes throughout his career have been in the Europa League rather than the Champions League and in qualifying for the latter rather through league position rather than competing to be champions. He was dismissed in fairly short order when he succeeded Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, too. Julian Nagelsmann was once touted as the next big thing in Germany and is still rated highly by some, but he was unceremoniously dumped among great recriminations at Bayern.
All this leaves us with Enzo Maresca. When I first read in January that Maresca had told Chelsea he'd had talks over succeeded Pep, my initial thought was that we could surely do better. I fully acknowledge that it's not really a choice to set the pulse racing, especially in view of the colossal gap that the outgoing coach will leave. Nonetheless, I've come round to a significant degree. I'm still not excited, but I see it rather like Churchill perceived democracy, which he famously called "...the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried ...".
In other words, we need to assess his merits against those of other contenders who would probably be willing actually to take the job. To bitch about not fancying Maresca without citing viable alternatives is both pointless and idiotic. Some of the unconstructive derision and disrespect on here for his record (calling him a nobody and such like, which I've seen several times) is simply obnoxious. By all means cite VIABLE alternatives who might be better, but in the absence of any such suggestions, witless abuse is rather unhelpful and worthless, reflecting poorly on those who post it.
Sure, it's possible to pick holes in his record at Leicester and Chelsea. Nonetheless, let's look at the bottom line. At the former, he won the Championship, which was the task he was set at the start of that season. At Stamford Bridge, he qualified for the Champions League, winning the Europa Conference league and Club World Cup, despite the well-known dysfunctional set-up at the club.
The biggest point in our favour isn't that he knows our club, as some rather foolishly mischaracterise the argument. It's that the club knows him. He had two years with us, one as second-in-command working alongside Pep each day for a year during a season in which, in case anyone's forgotten, we won the treble. That bears repeating. Yes, the fucking treble, meaning the most prestigious one, with the Champions League. Those at MCFC, including most importantly the outgoing coach, have had plenty of chance to observe him and they obviously think he's worth a go in circumstances where there are few, if any, outstanding realistic candidates.
So Maresca deserves our respect if he takes over. He's earned the job and I wish him well, as should we all. Being without the wonderful "bald fraud" will take a hell of a lot of getting used to, but hopefully Enzo will follow his principles and guide us calmly into the post-Pep era. Buona fortuna, signore!
www.bbc.co.uk