Bayern Munich want to extend Pep Guardiola’s contract after the club said they were not worried by any contact with Manchester City, who are believed to have their sights set on hiring him as coach for the 2016-17 season.
Guardiola is the No1 choice for City should they remove the under-performing Manuel Pellegrini and there had been speculation that they might hire a stop-gap for a year while they waited for the Spaniard to see out his contract with Bayern, which expires in 2016.
Guardiola enhanced his reputation when Bayern overturned a 3-1 first leg defeat in Porto by winning 6-1 in their Champions League quarter-final second leg and they remain runaway leaders in the Bundesliga and meet Borussia Dortmund in the German Cup semi-finals at the end of this month.
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, the Bayern chief executive, told Bild: “The aim is to extend Guardiola’s contract and I think we have very good chances that he remains the coach here beyond 2016.”
He said contract extension talks would take place in the second half of the year, following the end of the season.
Guardiola signed a three-year deal in 2013 after winning 14 trophies in four season at Barcelona and taking a year out.
Rummenigge said he was not concerned by any recent contact between Guardiola and his former Barcelona colleague Txiki Begiristain, who is now City’s sports director. “I am not worried about that,” he said. “This just proves the quality of the coach.
“I am also aware that Begiristain worked with Guardiola at Barcelona at some point. But I cannot imagine that Pep would go to a club like Manchester City.”
