“I want to be the best in everything” – Pep Guardiola makes major Manchester City future admission

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has admitted he wants to emulate and even surpass former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson as he rebuilds a title-winning squad at the Etihad Stadium.

City are at a nascent stage of their transition under director of football Hugo Viana, who replaced long-serving executive Txiki Begiristain last summer and made sweeping changes to Guardiola’s first-team ranks by sanctioning a series of high-profile exits and recruiting heavily in the transfer market.

The Blues have also bolstered their ranks in January by adding Antoine Semenyo and Marc Guehi to their squad as they deal with injuries across the board whilst being in the hunt for silverware on multiple fronts.

The jury is out on whether City can fulfil their silverware aspirations as the season progresses, having made a drab start to 2026 that has seen the Blues record just one win in their last six Premier League games.

City’s slump has come simultaneously with increasing speculation over Pep Guardiola’s future at the Etihad Stadium, with reports in England citing a growing belief in the industry that the Catalan could leave his job at the end of the season.

Guardiola is under contract at Manchester City till 2027, having signed a two-and-a-half year deal in November 2024, and has repeatedly said in press conferences of late that he is not thinking of a departure anytime soon.

However, that hasn’t stopped the rumour mill around his club future and ahead of Sunday evening’s title decider against Liverpool at Anfield, the 55-year-old was asked whether the ongoing squad rebuild at the Etihad Stadium can refresh him.

“I didn’t know it, I said it many times to you, I want to be the best in everything,” Guardiola said in a press conference on Friday afternoon.

“I have all the records; that’s why I said last game I want to spend more money, to be the first one to spend money. If Sir Alex Ferguson rebuilt three times, I want to rebuild three times.”

On whether he feels refreshed, he added: “Yeah, of course. I would like – what I said before – the process to rebuild is quicker when everybody is fit. When we have this amount of injuries that in moments, like last month we had seven or eight, in Norway 11 absences, and always is more difficult to reduce this time to understand a little bit things.

“But in football, there is no time. Come here and say, ‘Oh God, please, please give me time’. The fans, the owners, the chairman say, ‘Time? Win games, my friend. Win games and forget about the rest’. That is what it’s about.”

Executives at the Etihad Stadium, led by chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak and Viana, have been tasked with recruiting an eventual successor for Guardiola, with City understood to have drawn up an early stage three-man shortlist for the job – when Guardiola leaves, as that has become a matter of when, not if.