The Manchester United-bound Portuguese will not be taking up residence at the Etihad Stadium, but there are many enticing candidates still available
Just a few weeks ago, Manchester City's game with Sporting CP on Tuesday looked like being a metaphor for an upcoming changing of the guard, with Ruben Amorim shaping up to take over from Pep Guardiola when the Catalan presumably calls time on his glorious nine-year spell in charge at the Etihad Stadium at the end of the season. With City having already recruited Hugo Viana from Sporting to step into Txiki Begiristain's shoes as director of football, Amorim made perfect sense as Guardiola's successor.
But instead of working together on a transfer of power, Amorim and Guardiola are now set to be sworn enemies on the opposite sides of the divide in Manchester. This week's Champions League meeting offers a taste of what's to come in the Manchester Derbies to come in December and April, and possibly beyond then.
Guardiola has had City on tenterhooks since entering the final year of his contract, making no clear pronouncements about his future while also not ruling out staying for an extra year or two. City have insisted that they never showed any genuine interest in hiring Amorim as his style of play does not match with the club's vision. The timing of Amorim's departure from Sporting to take over at United, however, is interesting.
The 39-year-old stated that his desire was to leave Sporting at the end of the season, but that United had told him it was "now or never". Could he have been holding out for an approach from City for next season, only to learn, potentially from Viana, that Guardiola was now intent on prolonging his stay? After all, Guardiola and City announced their previous two contract extensions during the November international break, which is just around the corner.
Perhaps we will never know whether City ever held talks with Amorim. What we do know is that one of the top young coaches in Europe is now off the table completely and City's options for replacing Guardiola, be that next summer or in 2026, have narrowed.
But which coaches remain in the frame to eventually take the baton from Guardiola? GOAL runs through the 12 best candidates…
Getty Images12Xavi Hernandez
The midfield puppet master of Guardiola's all-conquering Barcelona side, Xavi is an obvious candidate to one day succeed him at City. He has had a very similar career path to his former coach: he joined Barca as a child, won multiple trophies with the club and went on to captain them, then saw out his playing days in Qatar before returning to Camp Nou as head coach and reclaiming the Spanish title. He has even imitated Guardiola by taking a year off to recover from the emotional strain of being in the Barca dugout.
Xavi was intent on completing his year off, which is one of the reasons he was not interested in succeeding Erik ten Hag at Old Trafford. Replacing Guardiola would in theory be easier as City are so well run. Xavi's reputation as a coach has been a little scarred by his final year with Barca, with the team finishing 10 points behind Real Madrid in the title race, but then looking like world-beaters this season under his successor Hansi Flick. One of his predecessors, Luis Enrique, also accused him of veering from the club's playing values.
AdvertisementGetty 11Andoni Iraola
Bournemouth boss Iraola is not Catalan, but hails from the unlikely coaching hub of Gipuzkoa, which has also produced Mikel Arteta, Xabi Alonso, Unai Emery and Julen Lopetegui. Guardiola named Iraola among the "many top coaches" in the Premier League on Friday, and a day later was proved spot-on in his assessment – albeit to his own detriment – as the Cherries inflicted a first league defeat on City in 11 months.
It was Bournemouth's second major scalp this season after beating Arsenal, while last year Iraola's side destroyed Manchester United 3-0 at Old Trafford. The coach does employ a different style of play than Guardiola, favouring quick transitions over positional play, but with a bigger budget and different players at his disposal, he could surely succeed at the Etihad.
Getty Images10Julian Nagelsmann
Nagelsmann has committed to leading Germany through to the 2026 World Cup, which makes him unavailable in the event that Guardiola decides to leave this summer. He is, however, a tempting option in the longer term if the Catalan opts to stay.
Nagelsmann became the Bundesliga's youngest-ever coach when he was named boss of Hoffenheim in 2016 and has kept getting bigger jobs, being hired by RB Leipzig and then Bayern Munich before succeeding Flick as Germany coach.
His sacking by Bayern in March 2023 has proven to be a huge mistake and Nagelsmann's stock has risen again after Germany's excellent showing at Euro 2024.
Getty9Simone Inzaghi
Inzaghi also has a different style of play to Guardiola's, but he has developed into one of Europe's most successful coaches in recent years, winning nine trophies in total across his spells in charge of Lazio and Inter.
His side gave City their toughest test of their Champions League campaign thus far, and it was only thanks to some heroics from Ederson that the Cityzens clung on to win football's holy grail. A leap to a top English or Spanish club, then, shouldn't be off the table for the former striker.
