‘Difficult to find the motivation’

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has raised the prospect he will leave the club when his contract expires at the end of next season.

Guardiola has created English football history by steering his City side to four successive league titles.

It takes his personal tally to six, equal with Liverpool’s Bob Paisley and George Ramsay of Aston Villa, and only exceeded by Sir Alex Ferguson, who has 13.

On 25 May, City will attempt to become the first side to complete the domestic Double in successive seasons.

In total, Guardiola has won 17 trophies since arriving at City in 2016.

In 2019, City became the first side to win the Premier League, FA Cup and EFL Cup in the same season. Last term, they emulated Manchester United by winning the Treble, beating Inter Milan in Istanbul to win the Champions League for the first time in the club’s history.

“Last year, after Istanbul, I said ‘it’s over, there’s nothing left’,” he said.

“But I have a contract and I start to think ‘no-one has done four in a row, why don’t we try?’. And now I feel it’s done, so what next?

“Now I don’t know what exactly the motivation is because it’s difficult to find it when everything is done.”

Guardiola’s present contract expires at the end of next season, by which time he will have been at City for nine years.

Asked on Sky Sports about his future, Guardiola said: “The reality is I am closer to leaving than staying. We have talked with the club – my feeling is that I want to stay now. I will stay next season and during the season we will talk. But eight or nine years – we will see.”