Guardiola wants longer City stay: 'I have to deserve it'
Pep Guardiola is keen to extend his Manchester City contract but believes he needs to prove he's worth longer terms.
The Spanish tactician will start his fifth season overseeing City in Monday's trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers - his stint in Manchester is already longer than his spells in charge of Barcelona and Bayern Munich - but his current deal expires at the end of the 2020-21 campaign.
"I would love to stay longer here," Guardiola said, according to BBC Sport's Simon Stone. "It is a place I love to be but I have to deserve it. This club achieved standards in the last decade but we have to maintain that."
Manchester City were among the favorites to win the Champions League last season, but Guardiola faced criticism for overthinking his tactics following a surprise quarterfinal elimination to Lyon. City's best-ever finish in the competition was in the semifinal stage in 2016, and that was under Guardiola's predecessor, Manuel Pellegrini.
The club's solitary piece of silverware from the 2019-20 term was taken from a 2-1 League Cup final win over Aston Villa.
"They didn't tell me, 'You have to do this or that.' They told me to play," Guardiola said when asked if chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak or chief executive Ferran Soriano set targets for the new campaign. "But I know the standards of the club and if I don't achieve the standards, I probably don't deserve so I have to win to extend my contract."
Guardiola has been repeatedly linked to a job at Juventus in recent years, but the decorated manager and board members from both City and the Italian club have separately shot down those rumors.
Since Guardiola arrived at City in 2016, the Mancunians have collected two Premier League titles, one FA Cup, and three League Cups.