- 2 days ago
Guardiola bids farewell to Premier League as Man City beaten 2-1 at Etihad by Europa League champions Aston Villa
24/02/2026
Etihad Stadium, Manchester, UK
24/02/2026
Etihad Stadium, Manchester, UK
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SportsTranscript
00:00Ale, are you happy, eh?
00:03Ale
00:06Pepp, maybe not the ending you wanted match-wise, but how are you feeling after that?
00:11Well, we played against an incredible team. Unais won my...
00:16What a manager as a human being.
00:18So, by the first half, we were extraordinary.
00:22The 1-0 was unfair. We should have scored three or four goals.
00:25I think it resumed perfectly what happened that season.
00:29Until then, we could not fight a little bit, a little bit longer against Arsenal.
00:33Resume what happened in the first half, in the second half,
00:35was a little bit what happened most of the time in the season.
00:37We were really good in the first to close the game,
00:39and after that, the second half, Arsenal-Mila was better.
00:42Congratulate again for Europa League for an incredible season.
00:44It will be an incredible contender in the future in these Premier League.
00:48Apart of that, yeah, I've been good.
00:51Did the occasion dawn on you when Bernardo came off?
00:53The tears flowing from him and yourself?
00:56No, I don't cry, but when I see Bernardo cry, I cry.
00:59So, and I tell, don't cry.
01:02But, yeah, it will happen.
01:04I've been so special moment from Bernie.
01:07He said to me, I'm so tired.
01:09I cannot run. I cannot run.
01:10The emotions were so important today with John.
01:13Happy Fernandinho is here.
01:15Came from Brazil just for today.
01:17I will never forget that.
01:21Eddie, Gundo, and all the guys, you know,
01:24all the guys who was in the video for John and Bernie
01:27to present what they have done this decade.
01:30So, top human beings, top players.
01:33And grab machines to day by day, win, win, and win,
01:36and we achieve what we achieve.
01:38How do you compare the good pies to the fans that you did to Barcelona,
01:43Bayern, and today?
01:45Quite similar.
01:47Sorry.
01:48The love I have for my Barcelona is so special.
01:53I was a ball boy there.
01:54I will grow up.
01:54I'm a Barcelona fan.
01:55Always I will be a Barcelona fan.
01:57They take care of me really well.
01:59They teach me everything that I know for the people there.
02:02I cannot.
02:04Always when you compare three things,
02:06one will be undermined and that is not fair
02:08because Bayern Munich and Bayern Munich,
02:11the memories I have is unbeatable as well,
02:13but here I've been 10 years and, of course,
02:14the luggage, the luggage of memories I put inside
02:20is more than any other part and what I said before.
02:26So, yeah, 20 trophies, yeah, absolutely.
02:28With the 10 trophies, they sacked me before.
02:30You are not here.
02:31Win, win, win.
02:32You continue, continue, continue.
02:33But you are not at home and see the trophies in the cabinet.
02:36They say, oh, how happy I am
02:37because I see one league or two Premier Leagues.
02:39It's the memories, the connection that I had.
02:41I don't know exactly why the connection I had
02:43since day one for the city, I would say,
02:46but especially with the staff, backroom staff,
02:48with the players.
02:49The players have a conflict,
02:50but I know we are connected.
02:53We were connected and that is what I...
02:55I'm pretty sure John and Bernie will say the same
02:57is what we bring back to my Barcelona.
03:02That was a good send-off for Bernardo and John.
03:05Whose idea was it to make the Guard of Honour when they came off?
03:08I control everything but not everything.
03:11No idea. Honestly, no idea.
03:13But, you know, Aston Villa didn't play for anything.
03:18I think it was a good game for them to get rid of all the alcohol
03:22they had in the bodies after winning the Europa League.
03:27But they decided, the players decided,
03:29and thanks to the referee, to allow them to do it.
03:33Guys, there's a lot of hands, so please just bear that in mind
03:35when you ask your question.
03:37I know you say it's not so much about the trophies,
03:40but about the reactions from the people,
03:42the players and other managers.
03:43You mentioned Ferguson sending you the messages the other day.
03:46Was this the kind of perfect tribute to see the new stand
03:50with all the fans singing, interrupting you with the chants?
03:55Is that the thing?
03:56Yeah, but not just that.
03:57And, of course, Alex Ferguson was there by Jurgen Klopp.
04:00Maybe an incredible video.
04:01I will remember forever then.
04:04Daniel Flark and a lot of them.
04:12So, and, yeah, that is good.
04:15And the players, so, as I said in the beginning,
04:18I feel so, so, so beloved.
04:21And what can I say more?
04:22So, that is the right time.
04:25I feel right now that the last time I'm here,
04:28the last time I sit in my dugout,
04:30the last time when I left this stadium.
04:32So, I feel that is the right decision.
04:34It's the best, absolutely, for the club.
04:36The best.
04:38Marco Silva also.
04:40It's an incredible, lovely message.
04:41So, many of them.
04:42I'm really pleased.
04:44Hi, Pep.
04:44I know you just said there that you think it's the right time,
04:47but obviously today there's nothing riding on the result,
04:49but you're on the touchline, you're kicking every ball.
04:51The minute there's a water break,
04:52you're giving tactical advice to some of your players.
04:54Are you sure that you're going to be able to leave all this behind?
04:57I don't know.
04:59I wouldn't miss it for a while, that's for sure.
05:02I was worried.
05:03Unless the club didn't want it, I will continue here.
05:07Unless the club say, no, it's enough, okay,
05:10because they are the bosses.
05:11But I feel deeply that this club is for these players,
05:16for many things, the right decision to take.
05:18And thank you to the club for respecting it, you know?
05:21Because at the end they understood that, okay,
05:25enough is enough.
05:28Hi, Pep.
05:29You've talked about Manchester a lot in your farewells,
05:31about the things you love about the city.
05:34A lot of people that work at the big football clubs
05:37maybe live out in the countryside away.
05:40Was living in Manchester one of the best decisions you made
05:43in terms of all the emotion you've felt today
05:46and through your time here?
05:48Yeah, the people who live in the countryside
05:49are rich people, it's not my case.
05:52So they don't have to live in the city, right?
05:55Yeah, always, it happened with Chris.
05:59When we were in Rome or we were in other places
06:03we have lived together in Munich,
06:04always we live in the heart of the city.
06:07We like to go to the restaurants, to the coffees,
06:09or in that case, Chris with the theatres
06:12or exhibitions or cinemas, it's close.
06:15So, and that's why always we decide that,
06:18and I think it's a good decision.
06:19You live in the, always, when I went to Munich
06:22and I went to Mexico, when I went, always
06:24I try to understand where I go.
06:27Otherwise I stay in Barcelona forever.
06:29And to understand a little bit you have to walk
06:33and you have to feel the places where it is.
06:37And never ever, that I think, it was a good,
06:40a good sign for all my family.
06:42We talk about that many times.
06:43Don't come here and judge.
06:45Don't compare.
06:47So you want to compare, you don't like it,
06:48stay in Barcelona.
06:49You come here, you don't come here to change anything
06:51for the British people, the culture, the traditions,
06:55or whatever they have.
06:56Just see, observe.
06:57If some things you like, sometimes not.
07:00But don't judge.
07:02And always when we have trouble with the family,
07:03always we live in that way.
07:06To learn the languages, to learn what you are.
07:12So at the end, that is the most important thing.
07:15Hi Pep.
07:16When you came, you brought clear ideas to this country.
07:20You changed football in this country in the eyes of many.
07:23But how much of English football do you take away with you?
07:28Take away?
07:29No, you give me a lot.
07:30So in the process of ten years, you don't win all the time.
07:33You don't have success all the time.
07:34You don't have bad moments all the time.
07:36So always I leave my profession in that terms.
07:39And every defeat is a learning.
07:40And every good moment is a learning too.
07:43And I take it.
07:45So when something I don't like from here, even from Barcelona,
07:48I'm the most critical person from my country, Catalonia.
07:52The most critical one.
07:53So I think it has to be like that.
07:55But that doesn't mean you don't love it.
07:57And it's the same with here.
07:59So it's what it is.
08:00Okay.
08:01The way we are played or the way I try to do it,
08:05there is always one person who has to decide.
08:06Otherwise, Erling would like to play the way he likes to play.
08:12And Ruben would like to play.
08:13And I have to decide.
08:15And not because I say it.
08:16I have to convince them every day.
08:17This is my task.
08:19Convince me every day, one player.
08:21That was an incredible experience in Munich.
08:22In Munich, when I arrived,
08:24you Hank is one of the precious persons I ever met.
08:28So I went to travel.
08:29And I arrived there.
08:31The players that didn't follow me in the first season.
08:34Why?
08:34Because they went to travel.
08:35Why you come here, Pep, to change what we want to travel?
08:38And I said, yeah, you're right.
08:39But I have to do it in my way.
08:40That's why I point me, right?
08:42And in that moment, it started, okay, one day, one player.
08:44Another day, one conversation.
08:46One clip.
08:47One moment.
08:48Step by step.
08:49Step by step.
08:50We didn't play good the first season.
08:52Second, good.
08:52The third was really, really good.
08:54Good.
08:54They need the process.
08:55It is what it is.
08:56So at the end, it's the question of how you give and give.
09:00The manager has to give all the time.
09:01You don't expect much.
09:02You have to give.
09:03You know?
09:03It's like a father with the kids.
09:05You don't expect much of the kids.
09:06You have to give.
09:07Give.
09:07One day, maybe, the kid realize what the mom and dad has done to you.
09:11It's the same like my dad, 95, today as he is, my, wow.
09:16The biggest trophy I can get.
09:17I said to him, even in wheelchair, you come here.
09:21Even with that.
09:23Because I'm a son.
09:24Imagine, you know, as a dad, 95, feel what these people love his son.
09:29Right?
09:30And that is the biggest, for him has been, I've been taught for me more.
09:34You know?
09:35To give to my dad that this kind of thing.
09:40Hi, Pepe.
09:41Hello.
09:41It's been a sort of whirlwind last week.
09:44It's gone very far.
09:44Lots of stuff happening.
09:45So has it actually hit you yet that you're leaving here?
09:48Or is that maybe going to come a bit later when you're, I don't know, in the Maldives,
09:50drinking a pina colada, so relaxing?
09:54You will not be invited.
09:59You don't like, you don't like Maldives.
10:02You are in the top.
10:04House music.
10:05Yeah, that's right.
10:06Yeah, yeah.
10:07I processed it right.
10:08Yesterday I was home and I didn't have any furniture.
10:10It was completely empty.
10:11Just have beds to sleep at night.
10:14Yeah, yeah.
10:15I processed it already.
10:16A few weeks and already it's done.
10:20Piper, do you have a message for your successor and for the fans in terms of how they should
10:28treat the successor?
10:30Because these are big shoes to fill.
10:35When the club will tell me which one it is, of course I will call him.
10:43Of course I will call him.
10:45And I will tell him the same like I said yesterday.
10:50Be yourself.
10:51The club will support you unconditionally.
10:54That is the biggest compliment or the biggest lucky that all the managers we have been here
10:58we have.
10:59With Chiqui, now we will go with Ferran, with all the workers, especially Haldun.
11:05And be yourself.
11:06Because you will be protected in the bad moments more than any other club.
11:10And be free.
11:12And your ideas go there.
11:13Work a lot.
11:14And everything will be fine.
11:16Everything will be fine.
11:17Everything will be fine.
11:20As fans don't forget.
11:22That the win in the travels of Kodurupa is the exception.
11:25When a season you win two titles, the three, and the other one in the almost last corner
11:31you are there, take value of that.
11:35Take value.
11:36It is so difficult.
11:37This business is so complicated.
11:40So that's why when you do something, start to come here.
11:43You win one game.
11:45Here in Etiquette, celebrate it.
11:47Enjoy it.
11:48Go in our pubs in Manchester and take a good beer.
11:54Celebrate it.
11:56Go.
11:56And after that, demand the players fight.
11:59Demand the players run.
12:00Demand the players.
12:02Defenders club must be defend.
12:06And the rest, every single step, give credit that is so difficult.
12:11If you come here thinking that we have done, now we have to win 27 Premier Leagues in a row.
12:16So we'll be having a big mistake.
12:19We build where we arrive here.
12:21Always in my message, win that game.
12:23League One, Carabao Cup, try to win the game.
12:26And we'll see what happens.
12:27That is the best way we can move on.
12:30And I'm pretty sure knowing the people here, that that is going to happen.
12:35You'll be such a tough act to follow.
12:37But you say with the people at this club, you feel that the club will continue to have that success.
12:44What gives you that feeling as you leave?
12:48Because they are stubborn, because they know exactly what they want to do.
12:54They know perfectly that their opponents are so tough here in Europe and wherever.
12:59Any trophy we take, we don't take for granted.
13:02We won a final against Chelsea, another one against Arsenal.
13:05I would not say they are not a good team.
13:09We fought, we finished first against a team like Aston Villa and they won the Europa League.
13:14It's a top, top, top team.
13:21All I would like to say to my fans, every single step, everything you do,
13:27don't wait to win the Premier League to be happy.
13:29That is what it is.
13:30Don't wait to win the Champions League to be happy.
13:33Enjoy the process.
13:34And the guys, because I know all the players here, they will do it.
13:39I know it.
13:41Pep, you've put so much in every day over ten years.
13:47Is there an element of relief that you go in now and you don't have to face pre-season again
13:53and start again?
13:54Are you quite relieved in a way?
13:57I'm so tired.
13:59I take it seriously.
14:01I'm so tired.
14:02I need...
14:05I did everything.
14:07You know, it happened in Barcelona by Munich.
14:10I did everything.
14:12That means good.
14:14That means good.
14:16But I did everything.
14:17And when that happens,
14:20I'm so well-educated from Barcelona for a sport.
14:23When you don't win, you're not able to win, accept it and learn from that and try it three days
14:28later.
14:28That is the best way.
14:30And we did it.
14:32Last one.
14:33Thank you so much, guys.
14:34Now you can clap in to me.
14:38We've got that right everything.
14:39All the best guys ever of these things, start.
14:43Well, thank you.
14:45Good so much, guys.
14:49You're welcome.
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