Ferran Soriano Clears Air on Pep Guardiola’s Departure Comments

Transfer speculations remain a regular feature in the world of football. For both players and managers, rumours regarding their next move are always a hot topic and one that journalists and media houses love to use as bait for the consumers of their content.

As with several other Manchester City players, Pep Guardiola has had his own fair share of transfer speculations. The Catalan boss has been severally linked with a move away from Manchester City. Barcelona, Juventus, the Spanish national team and even Brazil have all been mentioned as his destination at one point or another.

Given his roots and love for his boyhood club, the rumours are usually rife every time Barcelona are in the market for a manager. Whenever the team is struggling, the default mode has been to throw in Guardiola’s name as one of the candidates to replace the manager.

Time and time again, the City boss has had to clear the air that he’s happy at Man City and is focused on the team. He has also reiterated that he wishes to see out his contract and can only leave Manchester at the expiration of the deal, or if the club chooses to sack him before it expires. All that seems to fall on deaf ears.

Recent comments by the 52-year-old about Barcelona ahead of the encounter with Arsenal led to a fresh round of speculations. Guardiola was only buttressing a point with regard to Mikel Arteta’s love for Arsenal, saying that, like Arteta, if he was an assistant manager at Manchester City and Barcelona came calling he will take the opportunity. But the story on social media implied that he was ready to leave City at any time Barcelona came calling.

Manchester City CEO Ferran Soriano has moved to clarify the comments. Soriano, who was in Spain over the weekend and watched Barcelona’s victory away at Girona, stated in an interview after the game that Guardiola had no plans of leaving England anytime soon.

“No, I don’t think is possible,” he stated in an interview with DAZN.

“If you actually listen to Guardiola’s statements, he says ‘if I were assistant coach at Manchester City...’, but he’s not an assistant coach, he is the head coach at City.

“So, I’m sure that he won’t go to Barcelona or anywhere else in the next two-and-a-half years.”

Guardiola has his hands full with his job at City right now. Guiding the club to another Champions League final is top on the agenda. There’s also the little matter of overtaking Arsenal at the top of the table to retain the Premier League title.

It’s enough to keep him too busy to pay any attention to speculations about his next move.