Pep Guardiola's sacking odds slashed as Manchester City turmoil heats up
- Scott Allen
- 7 February 2023
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has leapt up the next manager to be sacked market after a grim couple of days for the defending champions.
A 1-0 defeat away at Spurs, financial rule breaches, Kevin De Bruyne left on the bench and reports of Erling Haaland ready to 'divorce' the club have poured more fuel on the fire that Guardiola could be on his way.
Bookies have been spooked by the recent troubles at the Etihad Stadium and cut Guardiola's odds of being the next Premier League manager to walk the plank to 5/1.
A week ago he was as high as 40/1 to leave.
Only Southampton manager Nathan Jones (1/3) and Bournemouth boss Gary O'Neil (4/1) are higher in the market.
Even West Ham manager David Moyes, who occupied top slot for most of January, has higher odds than Guardiola at 16/1.
Haaland has netted 31 goals in just 28 appearances for Manchester City across all competitions, but Spanish media is reporting that the striker's relationship with Guardiola is 'starting to crack'.
On top of that is Joao Cancelo being loaned out to Bayern Munich, Bernado Silva angling for a move and last year's Premier League player of the season De Bruyne left on the bench. Something isn't right in the Manchester City garden.
The financial rule breaches have also put Guardiola on a sticky wicket, after he hinted he would resign if he discovered he had been lied to by the club.
"If I defend the people and the club it's because I work with them," he said.
"When I asked about suspicions or if our people have done something, then I say to them, "tell me". I said to them "if you lie to me, the day after I'm not here, I will be out and you will not be my friend any more.
"But I look at them and believe them 100 per cent from day one. So I defend the club because of that."
