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Pep Guardiola open to extending his Manchester City stay beyond 2021

Pep Guardiola has hinted he may stay longer at Manchester City than his present contract, even though the club could find itself banned from the Champions League.

The manager has a deal that runs until the end of next season, and committed himself to staying at least that long when the news of Uefa’s impending sanction broke a week ago. Asked whether he might consider a further contract extension Guardiola did not rule out the possibility, adding that the most important thing was that he was happy in Manchester.

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“I don’t know what will happen; I want to stay one more year and after that it depends,” he said. “By 2021 we will have been five years together and we will have to see if the club is happy with me to extend the contract. I am working with exceptional players and we have incredible owners here – it wouldn’t be difficult to understand why I might want to stay three more years or whatever, but we are going to see at the end of the season.

“For now I want to stay focused on the next three months, we have to do game by game as best as we possibly can and after that we will have time to think.”

Five years will be longer than Guardiola has stayed at any other club he has managed, even without a further extension, but the manager places a high value on happiness.

“When I have moved before it was because I thought I would be happier in a new job than at the place before,” he said. “The important thing is that I have never regretted for one second my decision to come here, or to extend my contract. Beyond that results dictate our jobs. No manager is any different and every manager has good and bad moments. I don’t regret for one moment the decision we made together.”