Guardiola casts doubt on management return after decade at Manchester City

Pep Guardiola has cast serious doubt on whether he will return to football management, saying his instinct after leaving Manchester City is that a comeback will be “difficult”.

The 55-year-old Catalan, who spent a decade at the Etihad before stepping away at the end of last season, made the admission in an interview filmed shortly after his departure and featured in a new documentary released this week.

“I don’t even know myself what I’m going to do, honestly. I don’t know,” Guardiola said. “But for sure, I will not be…it will be difficult to come back. My feeling today is it will be difficult to come back.”

Guardiola said he needs time to reset both personally and professionally, invoking a Catalan concept to describe his immediate ambitions. “I need to refresh many things in my personal life. And professional, what I’ve found, I need to find myself a little bit in different thing. Sitting and seeing time go by or the time crosses in front of you. There is a word in Catalonia: badar — it is like this [zoned out]. So do that. That is one of my main targets I want to do.”

Despite those sentiments, Guardiola will not lack for suitors. Italy’s national team were reportedly hopeful of appointing him this summer, though he turned that opportunity down.

City, meanwhile, have moved forward under Enzo Maresca, who served as one of Guardiola’s assistants during the club’s Treble-winning season before building his own managerial record at Leicester and Chelsea. The pair met in Barcelona this summer, where Guardiola briefed Maresca on every member of the City squad in an effort to give his successor the best possible start.