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Just a few weeks ago, Manchester City’s game with Sporting CP on Tuesday looked like being a metaphor for an upcoming changing of the guard, with Ruben Amorim shaping up to take over from Pep Guardiola when the Catalan presumably calls time on his glorious nine-year spell in charge at the Etihad Stadium at the end of the season. With City having already recruited Hugo Viana from Sporting to step into Txiki Begiristain’s shoes as director of football, Amorim made perfect sense as Guardiola’s successor.
But instead of working together on a transfer of power, Amorim and Guardiola are now set to be sworn enemies on the opposite sides of the divide in Manchester. This week’s Champions League meeting offers a taste of what’s to come in the Manchester Derbies to come in December and April, and possibly beyond then.
Guardiola has had City on tenterhooks since entering the final year of his contract, making no clear pronouncements about his future while also not ruling out staying for an extra year or two. City have insisted that they never showed any genuine interest in hiring Amorim as his style of play does not match with the club’s vision. The timing of Amorim’s departure from Sporting to take over at United, however, is interesting.
The 39-year-old stated that his desire was to leave Sporting at the end of the season, but that United had told him it was “now or never”. Could he have been holding out for an approach from City for next season, only to learn, potentially from Viana, that Guardiola was now intent on prolonging his stay? After all, Guardiola and City announced their previous two contract extensions during the November international break, which is just around the corner.
Perhaps we will never know whether City ever held talks with Amorim. What we do know is that one of the top young coaches in Europe is now off the table completely and City’s options for replacing Guardiola, be that next summer or in 2026, have narrowed.
But which coaches remain in the frame to eventually take the baton from Guardiola? GOAL runs through the 12 best candidates…
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Getty Images12Xavi Hernandez
The midfield puppet master of Guardiola’s all-conquering Barcelona side, Xavi is an obvious candidate to one day succeed him at City. He has had a very similar career path to his former coach: he joined Barca as a child, won multiple trophies with the club and went on to captain them, then saw out his playing days in Qatar before returning to Camp Nou as head coach and reclaiming the Spanish title. He has even imitated Guardiola by taking a year off to recover from the emotional strain of being in the Barca dugout.
Xavi was intent on completing his year off, which is one of the reasons he was not interested in succeeding Erik ten Hag at Old Trafford. Replacing Guardiola would in theory be easier as City are so well run. Xavi’s reputation as a coach has been a little scarred by his final year with Barca, with the team finishing 10 points behind Real Madrid in the title race, but then looking like world-beaters this season under his successor Hansi Flick. One of his predecessors, Luis Enrique, also accused him of veering from the club’s playing values.
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Getty11Andoni Iraola
Bournemouth boss Iraola is not Catalan, but hails from the unlikely coaching hub of Gipuzkoa, which has also produced Mikel Arteta, Xabi Alonso, Unai Emery and Julen Lopetegui. Guardiola named Iraola among the “many top coaches” in the Premier League on Friday, and a day later was proved spot-on in his assessment – albeit to his own detriment – as the Cherries inflicted a first league defeat on City in 11 months.
It was Bournemouth’s second major scalp this season after beating Arsenal, while last year Iraola’s side destroyed Manchester United 3-0 at Old Trafford. The coach does employ a different style of play than Guardiola, favouring quick transitions over positional play, but with a bigger budget and different players at his disposal, he could surely succeed at the Etihad.
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Getty Images10Julian Nagelsmann
Nagelsmann has committed to leading Germany through to the 2026 World Cup, which makes him unavailable in the event that Guardiola decides to leave this summer. He is, however, a tempting option in the longer term if the Catalan opts to stay.
Nagelsmann became the Bundesliga’s youngest-ever coach when he was named boss of Hoffenheim in 2016 and has kept getting bigger jobs, being hired by RB Leipzig and then Bayern Munich before succeeding Flick as Germany coach.
His sacking by Bayern in March 2023 has proven to be a huge mistake and Nagelsmann’s stock has risen again after Germany’s excellent showing at Euro 2024.
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Getty9Simone Inzaghi
Inzaghi also has a different style of play to Guardiola’s, but he has developed into one of Europe’s most successful coaches in recent years, winning nine trophies in total across his spells in charge of Lazio and Inter.
His side gave City their toughest test of their Champions League campaign thus far, and it was only thanks to some heroics from Ederson that the Cityzens clung on to win football’s holy grail. A leap to a top English or Spanish club, then, shouldn’t be off the table for the former striker.
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Getty8Unai Emery
A four-time Europa League winner, Emery has a wealth of experience at demanding clubs and has successfully rebuilt his reputation in English football at Aston Villa after a disappointing spell in charge of Arsenal. The Basque tactician led Villa to the Champions League for the first time with a similar squad that Steven Gerrard could not make sense of, and his side have made a perfect start in Europe’s top competition, recently stunning Bayern Munich. So imagine what he could do at a club like City where everything is already in place to succeed.
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Getty Images7Luis Enrique
A former team-mate of Guardiola’s, Luis Enrique wasn’t overawed when it came to following in Pep’s footsteps two years after the Catalan left Barca. And he quickly imitated his success, winning the treble in his first season in charge while his side, boasting an unrivalled front three of Neymar, Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez, played ferocious attacking football.
Luis Enrique rubs many people up the wrong way, particularly the media, but he has a knack for building winning teams and would have the self-confidence, as well as the tactical nous, to make the City dugout his own.
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Getty Images6Thiago Motta
Former Italy midfielder Motta crossed paths with Guardiola at Barcelona, and since diving into coaching he has imitated his style with great success. Motta won admirers for his work at Spezia and then worked wonders with Bologna, finishing fifth in Serie A and qualifying for the Champions League for the first time, all the while playing a brand of possession football almost unheard of in Italy.
His fine work landed him the top job in Italian football, the role of Juventus manager, after being linked with Manchester United. He might need a couple more years of experience and to win a Scudetto or two with the Bianconeri before he can make the step up to City, but if Guardiola does renew his contract, that could buy Motta valuable time to further prove his credentials.
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Getty Images Sport5Enzo Maresca
Maresca joined a long line of Guardiola assistants to take a leap into first-team coaching when he left City for Leicester in June 2023 just weeks after Guardiola and his team had secured the treble. Maresca won the Championship title at the first time of asking and has made a strong start at Chelsea this season, which is no mean feat as Graham Potter, Mauricio Pochettino and Frank Lampard were all chewed up and spat out by the Todd Boehly regime and its wild transfer policy.
But as Maresca’s predecessors will be able to tell him, managers do not last long at Stamford Bridge even when they are successful. And if Guardiola does extend his stay by one year, Maresca could be on the lookout for a new job just when City are finalising their search for his successor.
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Getty4Michel
Michel made a name for himself by leading tiny Girona into an unexpected title race with Real Madrid and Barcelona last season and finishing in La Liga’s top three, ahead of Atletico Madrid. Michel is highly admired within the City Football Group, which owns a 48 percent stake in the Catalan club, and is committed to the possession-based style Guardiola has perfected.
His low-profile within the game and his relative inexperience at a big club compared to the other candidates could count against Michel, though,. The fact that Girona have struggled to maintain their feats of last season could also harm his chances: they are currently 11th in La Liga and have just three points from their three Champions League games.
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Getty3Roberto De Zerbi
In the four occasions City faced Brighton while fiery Italian De Zerbi was in charge, it felt like a love-in between the two coaches. Guardiola told his staff they were looking at the next City manager after an enthralling 1-1 draw in May 2023, and the following season, he gave the green light to De Zerbi one day taking his place.
“I don’t have any doubt, he can train Brighton and all the teams around the world,” the Catalan said. “They are top, I was appointed as Barcelona’s first-team coach from the fourth division with no experience. It doesn’t mean you have to be at top clubs to be manager of top clubs.”
De Zerbi took Brighton to their highest-ever league finish and has made an impressive start with Marseille, who are second in Ligue 1. His style of play is arguably even more exciting than Guardiola’s and he matches the Catalan when it comes to in-game coaching, pulling off all sorts of solutions to get results. He is an enticing option for the City dugout whenever it becomes vacant, although his combative personality could put the club’s executives off.
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Getty2Vincent Kompany
“His destiny to be Man City boss is written in the stars,” Guardiola said 19 months ago when City were about to face Kompany’s Burnley in the FA Cup. “It is going to happen; I don’t know when but it is going to happen.” Since then, the former City captain has got promoted with Burnley and then suffered relegation, but landed the Bayern Munich job all the same.
He has made a smooth transition to the Bundesliga, with his side unbeaten after their first nine league games and leading the standings, although he has found the Champions League harder, suffering defeat at Villa Park and a humiliating thrashing by Barcelona.
Still, Bayern should have little trouble reaching the knockout stages and a strong showing in Europe, plus wrestling the title back from Bayer Leverkusen, would convince the club that he can follow Guardiola’s path from the Bavarian giants to City. It is an outcome every City fan would love to see.
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Getty1Xabi Alonso
Alonso had the top clubs in Europe lining up to appoint him last season as he guided Leverkusen to a stunning double of an inaugural Bundesliga title and the DFB-Pokal while going a record 51 games unbeaten in all competitions. And yet despite vacancies appearing at former clubs Liverpool and Bayern Munich, he decided to stay at Leverkusen for one more year. Many have suspected that he is biding his time until Carlo Ancelotti leaves Real Madrid, but it is equally possible Alonso wanted to wait and see what happened with Guardiola’s future.
The former midfielder had the perfect coaching education after playing under Rafael Benitez, Jose Mourinho, Ancelotti and finishing his career with Guardiola his boss. He has taken something from all of them, creating an innovative brand of football based around an unorthodox 3-4-2-1 shape, and he would be the ideal candidate to succeed his serial-winning mentor at the Etihad.
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