Guardiola planned to leave Man City for Barca

FT Desk

• 29 Nov 2022 17:46 GMT
• 3 min read

Pep Guardiola signed a new two-year contract with Manchester City last month, but he thought about returning to first club Barcelona and can imagine working with them again in the future.

Guardiola made nearly 400 appearances as a Barcelona player before steering the club to an unprecedented sextuple, which included La Liga and the Champions League, in 2009.

But he only stayed four years as head coach at Camp Nou, and then spent three with Bayern Munich before joining City in 2016.

READ: Revealed: Haaland was key to Guardiola's new Man City deal

The trophies have kept coming for Pep, and City have won four of the last possible five Premier Leagues, but fans were getting tetchy when he hadn't renewed with just seven months left on his existing deal, and Mikel Arteta was reportedly lined up as his successor behind the scenes.

Guardiola has now extended until 2025, but speaking at the Catalan Football Federation's annual gala, at which he won their Best Manager trophy for the fifth time, he said he thought about quitting.

Pep changed his mind

"I extended because it's very sunny there!" he joked before explaining why he really changed his mind about walking away. "I feel very good there, very comfortable, they give me everything and I have very good friends close by."

READ: Guardiola's third favour to Arteta to solve Arsenal's midfield problem

City are currently second in the Premier League, five points behind Arteta's Arsenal, who are flying with two of Guardiola's former players in Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko.

Arteta had also been linked with Xavi's job at Barca, but the Blaugrana have pulled back to the top of the La Liga table and Guardiola thinks he would be surplus to requirments at his former club.

"It's a bad way to see it that I have to go back," he said. "Because Pep left and Barca kept winning. You shouldn't think like that. If I thought I was essential, I would return, but that's not the case.

"There are stages, processes, and If one day we have to meet again, we'll meet again naturally."