Pep Guardiola to leave Manchester City after season as club lines up Enzo Maresca

Pep Guardiola has told Manchester City’s players he will leave the club after Sunday’s final Premier League game against Aston Villa, turning a tense title run-in into a managerial cliff-hanger.

The decision, which Guardiola had hoped to keep private for longer to avoid a distraction, became public on Monday night while he was preparing for Tuesday’s match at Bournemouth. City now face the immediate task of beating Bournemouth to keep the title race alive after Arsenal moved five points clear by beating Burnley.

Guardiola will finish a decade at City with one season still remaining on his contract. The club have moved quickly to identify a successor: Enzo Maresca, a former City assistant and ex-Leicester manager, has been agreed with the club on a three-year deal in principle.

There are practical — and financial — loose ends to sort. Maresca left Chelsea on New Year’s Day with three and a half years still on his contract and did not claim severance. That leaves Chelsea holding compensation rights, and the London club are positioned to seek a substantial payment before Maresca can be formally installed at the Etihad.

Chelsea’s season has felt the aftershocks. Clubs and fans point to Maresca’s departure as a turning point in a second half of the campaign that saw them slip down the table, lose the FA Cup final to City and likely miss out on the Champions League. The managerial shuffle that followed — including Liam Rosenior’s short spell and Callum McFarlane as interim — precedes Xabi Alonso’s arrival this summer.

Maresca’s break with Chelsea grew from a series of frustrations: an unhappy December, conversations about City interest, and disagreements over transfer responses after Levi Colwill’s serious knee injury. After a 2-2 draw with Bournemouth on 30 December, Maresca did not face the media and subsequently signalled to his bosses that he planned to quit.

If Maresca does take the job, he plans to bring Willy Caballero into his backroom staff — the former City goalkeeper who worked with him at Leicester and followed him to Chelsea. For now, Manchester City’s season is both a title chase and a boardroom negotiation — a reminder that in top‑flight football the next manager often comes with a price tag as visible as any transfer fee.