Latest Odds for Guardiola’s Man City Successor Amidst Extension Uncertainty

Legendary Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola’s future still remains a mystery after the Cityzens’ Premier League legal battle saw a verdict returned.

The Spaniard had insisted that he would remain at the club should they be found innocent of all charges they faced, but after both sides believe they found success in their legal venture, nothing concrete has come to light regarding his future.

No City fan will want to see the back of their most successful manager ever and arguably the greatest of all time, but they would not be short of keen candidates.

The current favourite is already a City Group manager, and there are a host of young, up-and-coming coaches chomping at the bit to take over what to many, is the biggest managerial job in football.

Herrero Michel - 6/1

City Group sister club Girona enjoyed a fruitful 2023/24 season, finishing 3rd. For a long time, they sit top of the table before La Liga giants Barcelona and Real Madrid eventually cruised past them and took 2nd and 1st spots, respectively.

Their head coach Michel is a former professional footballer, competing for various Spanish sides before venturing into academy and then eventually first-team management at Rayo Vallecano. Before taking his current role at Girona, he also managed SD Huesca.

He has now took charge of 145 games at Girona, averaging an impressive 1.67 points per game during his tenure.

This season his side have struggled with the hangover of last season's successes, and have also lost key players including Artem Dobvyk and Savio. The former netted 24 league goals last season before transferring to AS Roma, and the latter was on loan at the Spanish side from French side Troyes, before Manchester City actually purchased him for around £25 million.

Michel seems the obvious appointment due to the City Group links and an assumed succession plan they may have in place, and is also fairly similar to Guardiola in style and ethos.

Xabi Alonso - 8/1

The joint second favourite to succeed Pep Guardiola is another historic Spanish deep-lying midfielder turned modernised football coach. Often labelled as one of ‘Pep’s disciples’, the current Bayer Leverkusen coach actually played under Guardiola during his stint at Bayern Munich.

Xabi Alonso found extreme success last season, when in his first season coaching first-team football he ousted his former club Bayern Munich to to win the Bundesliga title. Bayer Leverkusen won their first-ever league title in their 120-year existence, doing so unbeaten. They were also beaten in the Europa League final thanks to an Ademola Lookman hat-trick.

Alonso bettered Pep’s unbeaten Bundesliga streak with a lesser squad and reduced finances. He was hot property in the managerial market leading up to this, the 2024/25 season, with Liverpool said to be heavily interested. He committed another year to the German side but could be swayed at the end of this season to move to City.

Robert De Zerbi - 8/1

Current Marseille and former Brighton boss Robert De Zerbi is joint-second favourite to take over should Pep Guardiola leave Manchester City.

Robert De Zerbi joined Brighton following ventures with Sassuolo and Shaktar, bringing with him some ideas the Premier League had never seen before. He notoriously utilised two strikers who would drop into the classic number 10 role during build-up, and allow the wingers to stay as high and wide as possible.

His innovation and hands-on coaching led Brighton to their highest-ever finish, placing 6th, in De Zerbi’s first season at the helm. They also reached the FA Cup semi-final. His second season was slightly less successful, as he agreed to part ways and join French giants Marseille. He has been under media scrutiny following their strange approach to transfers this season.

It’s feasible that Manchester City may look to a progressive coach with modern approaches such as De Zerbi to take over should Guardiola choose not to extend his contract.

Ruben Amorim - 10/1

Another manager who was hotly-tipped to become the next Liverpool manager this season following the departure of Jurgen Klopp, was Ruben Amorim. Now, he is reportedly a contender to take charge at Manchester City.

The current Sporting CP boss isn’t your atypical modernised football coach, who usually look to utilise some variation of a 4-2-3-1. Instead, he is making waves with his 3-4-3 set up. He installs two tenacious yet impressive ball-players in the centre of his midfield and prioritises wing-play, deploying high attacking wing-backs like Pedro Porro and Nuno Mendes in his earlier years, who have gone onto Spurs and PSG respectively.

He uses a high press to win the ball high and force the opposition into mistakes, similar to how the current Manchester City and most dominating European sides choose to operate. He feels a good fit for the Premier League and is due a move to one of Europe’s top 5 leagues for his impressive performance with Sporting. He has beaten Porto and Benfica to the Primera Liga twice during his tenure, including last season.

The Best of the Rest

Vincent Kompany has the best odds out of the remaining candidate pool, coming in at 10/1 across all BV Gaming sites - BetVictor, PariMatch, talkSPORT BET and Betano. He, of course, is a Manchester City legend and is currently flying as boss of Bayern Munich.

Zinedine Zidane and Julian Nagelsmann both come in at 12/1 on BetVictor, it feels as though Zizou will take up a big job sometime soon and Nagelsmann is currently Germany's boss, but could be tempted by the opportunity to manage in the most coveted league in the world for the first time.