Wouldn’t it be nice if England could return home from the World Cup this summer as champions… exactly 60 years since the Three Lions last hoisted the Jules Rimet trophy in 1966. The players’ place in the English football hall of fame would be secured, while space would also be made for head coach Thomas Tuchel, too.
Of course, if things don’t go according to plan and England suffer an early exit from the tournament, the metaphorical knives will be sharpened – with Tuchel’s position in jeopardy. The timing of that might be prophetical, with Pep Guardiola now having left Manchester City after their final game of the 2025/26 campaign.
Pep would be a popular appointment with most England fans, and with the Spaniard now unemployed – and the World Cup unfolding in June and July – there’s a synergy in place that could see him replace Tuchel as head coach in the weeks or months ahead. So would Pep really be interested in becoming the next England manager?
England Expects
Pep Guardiola on becoming @England manager: “I have to decide what I want to do with my life, stay here, take a break, national team. But right now I am here and fully excited for the season.” [via @sistoney67]
— City Xtra (@City_Xtra) August 9, 2024
The bookmakers have priced up a number of Pep Guardiola betting markets; although the man himself has indicated that he will be taking some time away from football to recharge his batteries. “Rest, no plans to train [as a manager] for a while. I need to step back, I will not train for a while,” he answered when quizzed upon his immediate future.
Aside from a ceremonial role as a global ambassador for the City Football Group, Pep will be putting his feet up and watching the World Cup from the sofa like the rest of us. But you wonder how long it will be before he gets the itch to return to management…
If he does, serendipitous timing could lead Pep to the England job; at the time of writing, firms like SkyBet make that the most likely next port of call for the Spaniard. Should the Three Lions make a hash of the World Cup, that’s a scenario that would become far more likely. But the same might be said for Spain…
Although Luis de la Fuente has plenty of goodwill in the bank after masterminding La Roja’s triumph at EURO 2024, he may just lose a few admirers if Spain don’t have a deep run at the World Cup. He’s 64 too, and while that’s not overly old as an international manager, it’s old enough to surely pontificate on the possibility of retirement.
The challenge for the Spanish FA, if they did seek out Guardiola, would be in tempting a Catalan to coach the national team – there’s a reason that Catalonia has called numerous times for independence from the rest of Spain, after all. When asked about the possibility of managing Spain one day back in 2018, Pep’s response was a rather curt: “I think that is not going to happen.”
But he did suggest that he’d ‘like to live that situation’ when asked about the possibility of managing at a World Cup or European Championship, so there’s every likelihood that international management beckons next for Pep – be it at a Spanish-speaking country like Argentina or, dare we dream it, even possibly England.
Home, Sweet Home
Pep Guardiola (Jose Breton- Pics Action, Shutterstock.com)
In a number of interviews, Guardiola has suggested that he doesn’t want another job in club football – the process of reinventing a team from the ground up not appealing to a 55-year-old that has already reinvented the wheel on a number of occasions.
The likelihood of him returning to club management are lessened by the success that his former employers, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, are enjoying. Both won their domestic league titles under Hansi Flick and Vincent Kompany respectively – playing attractive, entertaining football in the process.
Indeed, there was a train of thought that suggested Kompany might be lined up to replace Pep at City, although Enzo Maresca is considered a white-hot favourite for that role – at the time of writing, the bookies had even stopped taking bets on such an eventuality.
Of the other ‘Pep Guardiola – Next Permanent Manager’s Job’ options, any MLS club has attracted plenty of interest at a general 7/1 at the time of writing. It’s the sort of job that might just hold appeal; whether that would be linking up with Lionel Messi at Inter Miami, or taking his family to live in New York or California. And the challenge of building a winning squad despite the strict salary cap in the MLS might just be enough to get Pep’s juices flowing again.
A member of the City Football Group, remember, is New York City FC. And with the MLS switching its schedule to coincide with the European season in 2027, Pep would be able to have a full year off before jumping back into management. Would Pep then be willing to take a bit out of the Big Apple?