Congratulations to Manchester City on their treble, as they became just the second English team to ever accomplish the feat. Where do manager Pep Guardiola, captain Ilkay Gundogan and the rest of the club go from here? Now that they have won the UEFA Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup all in the same season?
Read on to find out!
Pep has now done what he came to do at Man City, deliver to the club the one trophy they’ve never claimed before- the European Cup/UEFA Champions League.
And that now it means it will soon be time to bounce. Once his contract expires, in June 2025, he won’t renew and will instead look towards managing a national team. That is according to a report in ESPN today. Having won everything there is to win at the club level, with Bayern Munich, FC Barcelona and now City, it does make perfect sense that the next Pep step it towards leading a national side.
The ESPN report states that both Brazil and the United States have expressed interest in landing the highly accomplished Catalonian. Can’t really speak to anything that relates to Brazil, but as an American, I can tell you that right now Jesse Marsch is the leading candidate to get the open USMNT job, according to our sources.
However, Marsch’s status for that situation might not be too relevant anyway, as the US Soccer Federation has already said they are really going to take their sweet time finding a replacement for Gregg Berhalter. So lord only knows when the USSF will finally get that sorted.
We still say they should go after Jose Mourinho.
Moving on to Gundogan, he’s attracting the interest of Arsenal, FC Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain as he’s now available on a free.
The Daily Mail reports today that Arsenal academy manager Per Mertesacker believes his club are actually in a good position right now to sign the 32-year-old German.
We say “actually” because, as the Mail report indicates, Barcelona are supposedly nearing a position to announce the Bosman signing of Gundogan. We’ll see what happens, but it’s safe to say that PSG are out, and that any previous hopes City might have had of re-signing Gundogan are out the window now.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He’s written for numerous publications, including the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. He regularly appears on NTD News and WGN News Now. Follow the website on Twitter and Instagram.