There is an intangible sense that this could be Pep Guardiola\u2019s final season in the Manchester City dugout. Another early Champions League knockout exit at the hands of Real Madrid has prompted questions about whether Guardiola has the appetite to lead City back to the summit after a decade in charge. The club\u2019s shift from a possession-heavy side packed with technicians to a more direct approach featuring dribblers has been interpreted by some as preparation for life after Guardiola.<\/p>\n
Any replacement will face the task of succeeding a manager who transformed the club. A clear theme among the leading candidates is familiarity with Guardiola or with the environment he created. Luis Enrique fits that description. He played alongside Guardiola at Barcelona and replaced the City boss as Barcelona B manager in 2008. Enrique has since forged his own reputation through successful spells with Barcelona, Spain and Paris Saint-Germain. His achievements with PSG last season were particularly notable, guiding the French club to the Champions League title and crafting them into Europe\u2019s best team. PSG\u2019s electrifying attacking sequences were aided by the club moving away from a \u2018galacticos\u2019 transfer model. Whether Enrique would leave what he has built in Paris for the City job is unclear, but he will surely be part of the conversation. Few can argue against him being the world\u2019s best manager over the past two years.<\/p>\n
Xabi Alonso also emerges as a credible option, despite an underwhelming seven-month spell with Real Madrid. There is little shame in struggling under the pressure of the Santiago Bernab\u00e9u. Alonso\u2019s transformative success with Bayer Leverkusen, and in particular the extraordinary 2023\u201324 campaign, remain a strong measure of his ability. Stylistically there are differences between Alonso and Guardiola: Alonso has often preferred a 3-4-2-1 formation, while both managers demand precise and aesthetically pleasing football. Alonso has won praise for his unflappable attitude in dealing with the media, and he drew inspiration from Guardiola after working under him during his playing days at Bayern Munich. Having spent time at Liverpool, Alonso understands the demands of English football.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pep Guardiola’s future hangs after a Real Madrid exit. Could Luis Enrique or Xabi Alonso lead City? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9059,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1056,172],"tags":[1081,1530,1047],"class_list":["post-9060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-man-city","category-epl","tag-adaptation","tag-caretaker-manager","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}