Manchester City has finally confirmed what the entire football already knew: Pep Guardiola is set to take over as manager for the Premier League club for Manuel Pellegrini after this season.
Manchester City released a statement about the move, announcing that Guardiola will take over as manager after his contract runs out with Bayern Munich at the end of this season. The announcement says that Pellegrini will be replaced with Guardiola and that the current manager was "fully supportive" of the announcement coming out at this time in the season.
The news about Guardiola coming to the Premier League has been buzzing for weeks and now it has been confirmed, as Guardiola has agreed to a three year contract to take over as manager this summer. Guardiola has been one of the most successful managers in the football world in recent years and now he takes over one of the most high profile teams in England. According to the BBC, the club previously had discussions with Guardiola back in 2012 about taking over as manager.
Pellegrini has been a successful manager with City, having won 64 of 99 games, but the club wanted to bring in Guardiola, who has led Bayern Munich to multiple trophies. Guardiola won the league title in Germany multiple times with Bayern and he also has turned the club into one of the most attractive destinations for players. Now Guardiola brings that to Man City and he will have the chance to put the team over the top in the Premier League.
Now that Guardiola is set to take over, speculation has already begun about what moves could be made over the summer. Danny Murphy at the BBC has detailed some potential options, including that David Silva and Yaya Toure could be out and players like Lionel Messi, Paul Pogba or Robert Lewandowski could be targeted to make a move to England.
Playing for Guardiola is an attractive prospect and now that he is in the top league in England with one of the richest teams, some high profile names could move. Murphy writes that Paul Pogba and Robert Lewandowski have already been linked to the team and some have speculated that Messi could be convinced to move with Guardiola taking over. Murphy adds that "City are the only club who could get (Messi) to leave, because the only man who could tempt him away is Guardiola."
