Pep Guardiola has admitted that the Manchester City chairman, Khaldoon Al-Mubarak, is “not happy” with him after the failed defence of their Premier League title.
City sit 21 points adrift of champions Liverpool, who ended their 30-year wait for a domestic league title last month.
As part of an impassioned defence of City’s conduct following the overturning of their two-year Champions League ban on Monday, Guardiola insisted that he would be critical of the club if it was proven to have done wrong.]
The Catalan said this critical outlook is shared internally, and conceded that Al-Mubarak had been left unimpressed by City’s failure to keep pace with Liverpool and win a third successive Premier League crown.
“I’m critical of my club,” Guardiola said. “Internally, when I don’t like something I say to my chairman, [but] my chairman is not happy with me.
“We finished 21 points behind Liverpool. He’s not happy with me, but we discuss internally to try and do better next season, to convince them but always on the pitch.”
Despite their Premier League struggles, City have already won this season’s EFL Cup, will play an FA Cup semi-final against Arsenal on Saturday and hold a first-leg lead in their Champions League last-16 tie with Real Madrid.
City are eager to extend Guardiola’s stay at the Etihad, with his current contract set to expire next summer, but the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager is yet to offer guarantees regarding his future.
Guardiola declared his “love” for the club on Tuesday but said that now was not the time to publicly discuss a potential contract extension and that the club will be left in good hands whenever he eventually departs.
“This club is incredibly solid with Pep and without Pep,” he said.
“This club had success before my arrival here, with [Roberto] Mancini and [Manuel] Pellegrini, they won a lot of titles and played really good football.
“So without me, when I leave – and I don’t know when that will be – the structure of the club wants to grow and to be solid.”
