Could this be Pep Guardiola’s last season at Manchester City?The Spaniard signed a new contract last year that runs until 2027, having vowed to get the club back competing for titles after their slide away from the top.Guardiola’s contract at Man City runs until the 2027, but could he leave early on the high of getting the club back on their perch?GettyDespite losing two of their opening seven games, City now look like contenders again in what is being tipped as another three-horse race with Liverpool and Arsenal for the Premier League crown.They currently sit fifth in the table, but are only three points behind leaders Arsenal.Becoming champions again this season would make it a seventh title victory in nine seasons under Guardiola.And talkSPORT’s Alex Crook says it would be the perfect time for the iconic manager to sail off into the sunset, particularly after achieving a Premier League record that put him above Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger.“It’s one of the hardest things, isn’t it? If you’re a brilliant manager, as he clearly is, knowing when to bow out,” Crook said on White and Jordan.“Jurgen Klopp, there was talk about winning the quadruple in his last season, didn’t quite happen.“Brian Clough obviously bowed out on the back of relegation. Arsene Wenger arguably stuck around for probably four years longer than he should have done because he was hoping to go out in a blaze of glory.“Sir Alex Ferguson signs Robin Van Persie, having missed out on the title on the last day of the previous season, wins the league, sails off into the sunset.“I’m sure that is how Pep Guardiola would want to go out. “So if he did win the title, or even a Champions League this year, maybe he might think: ‘You know what, this is the time to go’.”Guardiola could decided that this season is his last as Man City manager – which would see him leave just one year short of a full decade in chargeGettyGuardiola is one of the most successful managers of his era in English football, with six Premier League titles, two FA Cups, four EFL Cups, one Champions League, one UEFA Super Cup and one FIFA Club World CupGettyEx-colleague tells Pep to move onTalk of Guardiola’s future was sparked this week by comments from one of the manager’s former colleagues.Carles Planchart worked as Pep’s performance analyst for 18 years across his spells in charge at Barcelona, Bayern Munich and City, before leaving his role at City at the end of last season.He has called for Guardiola to call it quits at the Etihad and seek out a ‘new project’, saying he’s been in charge at the club for too long.“It’s a personal decision he’ll have to make, but I think a project should last five or six years, no more,” Planchart told Spanish outlet SPORT. “But not for him, for everyone. Afterward, you have to regenerate. As a friend, I would tell him to look for a new project because he still has a long way to go.“This is why he’s been at City for so many years: they’ve treated us like family, they’ve let us work as if we were at home. He didn’t feel that way at Barca or Bayern.”Planchart worked with Guardiola for 18 years of his coaching career before departing Man City in the summerGetty‘Pep wasn’t sure’Despite signing a new deal with City last year, it appears Guardiola was not always sure of his future at the Etihad.talkSPORT pundit Scott Minto, who says sources in Spain told him the iconic coach was considering his future at the start of the season as he entered the penultimate year of his contract.“I did a little bit digging at the start of the season and I spoke to some Spanish sources and people are sort of a little bit in the know,” said the former Chelsea and Benfica defender.“He wasn’t sure, he had one year left in his contract.“He wasn’t sure if he was going to be offered the England job, the Brazil job… they sounded him out, he revealed that.“After four straight English top-flight titles, something that has never been done before in English football, he thought, ‘OK, one more year left in the contract, these guys can go again’. And he was wrong. Boy, did they fall off a cliff.Minto says Guardiola has been considering whether to move on from Man CitytalkSPORTGuardiola alarmed fans with his behaviour and appearance at times last season as Man City fell apartAmazon Prime“So then I think he’s thinking, ‘Well, I can’t leave them in this state’. So he signed the new contract. I get it. I can only imagine how draining it is.“Sometimes you listen to him and other managers, pre-match, post-match, during the week, he looks tired of the questioning. To do all this year, after year, after year.“He’s won six Premier League titles in the last eight years. That is Sir Alex Ferguson territory, which is absolutely sensational. And the way he does it as well must be very, very taxing.“But where does he go after Manchester City? You can only think it would be a national team.”What has Pep said about his Man City future?Speculation over Guardiola’s next steps were rife after sealing four Premier League titles in a row with the 2023/24 crown.The ex-Barcelona boss had one year remaining on his deal at the time, but he decided to stay and go for a fifth successive title win, when it all came tumbling down.Guardiola’s future has been a topic of debate over the last few years amid Man City’s slide and minor squad rebuildAFPA disastrous campaign, by their standards, saw City and Guardiola end the season with no trophies for the first time since the 2016/17 campaign – his first in charge at the Etihad.Many assumed now was the right time to go, but instead Guardiola penned a two-year extension and made a promise to stick around to get the City team back on track.“Since the beginning of the season, I’ve been thinking a lot,” Guardiola said after signing his new deal in November 2024. “I want to be honest, I thought this [season] should be the last one. But the problems we had in the last month, I felt now was not the right time to leave. I didn’t want to let the club down.”Guardiola also vowed to stick with the club amid their ongoing FFP investigation, insisting he would not jump ship even if sanctions meant they were relegated from the Premier League.“When all the clubs accuse us of doing something wrong and people say ‘what happens if we are relegated?’ I will be here,” he said around the same time.“I don’t know the position they are going to bring us, the Conference? [But] next year we will come up and come up and come back to the Premier League.”