Manchester City’s chairman, Khaldoon al-Mubarak, has indicated the club would be comfortable should Pep Guardiola and Sergio Agüero choose to leave at the end of next season.
The contracts of the manager and City’s record goalscorer end in summer 2021 and each is yet to extend terms. Guardiola has been guarded when discussing his future beyond then. Agüero will be 33 in June and has stated he will at some point return to his hometown club, Independiente, to finish his career.
Mubarak was asked about Guardiola. “It’s a very relevant question. Pep and I have a very clear understanding about what is right for the club,” he told City TV. “We have a clear alignment in terms of where we see the future and what we want in terms of success. It will be a comfortable conversation and it will work out in the best way for Pep, for me and for the club. I’m very comfortable about that.
“We have such an understanding – me and Pep, the ecosystem we have between Txiki [Begiristain, sporting director], Ferran [Soriano, chief executive], the entire club – that this conversation with Pep is a natural conversation. We have the right trust in each other and what’s best will happen.”
Mubarak struck a similar note regarding Agüero. “We will work it out together and it will be very natural, wherever that is, this year or the year after. It will play out in a comfortable way whatever Sergio decides. We have been very lucky, and it’s a testament to the type of players we have had over the years, to have players like David Silva, Vincent Kompany, Pablo Zabaleta, like Sergio Agüero, that have stuck with the team many years.
“They are part of the DNA of the club now and the decision of them to continue or stop, it’s the comfort zone that they have to decide. It was the same way with Vincent. He left when he felt it was right for him to leave and the same thing with David. Sergio is going to be the same.”
