Former Manchester City defender Nedum Onouha thinks Pep Guardiola will leave the club next summer and will have a role in picking his replacement.
Guardiola’s contract expires at the end of this season and neither he nor the club have given any indication as to whether he will renew it.
“I don’t expect him to stay, I’d love for him to stay though,” Onouha said.
“He’s been remarkable but he can’t do the job forever. He’ll want to leave the club in a good place for the long term where he’ll be helping pick the successor.
“He’ll know who he thinks is best to work in the environment that is needed at City to be successful going forward. He knows it better than anybody else. So I wouldn’t necessarily think that he’s going to go out in a way where it’s just about him getting what he wants.
“He’s selfless enough given the fact that his identities all over the football club, to know what it needs to continue to be successful, because for as much as he’s a man from Catalonia you know he’s a Barca boy through and through, he’s also half blue Mancunian now.
“So I think he’ll try and find the best way to exit while also allowing the club to continue to strive.
“When he first came in people said you can’t play tiki-taka football here, it’s not going to work, and in the years that he’s been there he hasn’t played that type of football. He’s evolved himself and the Premier League’s evolved, and you can even make a case that English football has evolved due to his presence.
“If he does decide to leave to go and do something else, myself and probably hundreds of thousands of others would carry him on our shoulders because he’s been amazing, he’s given us some of the best times of our lives you could say supporting Manchester City.”
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Onouha also discussed John Stones, tipping the England defender to cement himself as a club legend.
He said: “He’s been incredible, but interestingly he went through a spell where he wasn’t doing as well around 2020 where maybe he was going to be leaving, but then in came Ruben Dias, and out came the very best of John Stones.
“There have been times when he’s had fitness issues but then he ends up being a revelation in the most significant season in the club’s history when they win the treble, stepping into midfield, and not just being a defender in midfield, but being an excellent midfielder out of nowhere.
“The composure that he has and that desire to win, he’s been there for so long and this is a game in October against Wolves but after he scores look at what it means to him.
“He’s been an incredible buy and he’s one of many that City have had. Some of those buys are incredible because they’ve stayed for so long, they’ve been a part of it for so long.
“When you find clubs whereby the player turnover isn’t massive every single year and when you think what do they need, you don’t need four, five, six, seven players, you’re very rarely doing a rebuild, it’s just little bits here and there that help the team and help the squad out.
“I think he’s been amazing, I am delighted that he’s still at City, and he feels like someone that represents what City is, and I think that will probably continue to be the case for a long time.”