Pep Guardiola remains coy on new Manchester City contract

The Catalan is expected to renew terms at the Etihad but turned down an opportunity to confirm he will extend his current deal

Pep Guardiola celebrated his first Premier League title win on Sunday (Getty)

Pep Guardiola turned down an opportunity to confirm that he will sign a new Manchester City contract on Tuesday, instead reiterating that he currently has “one more year” at the Etihad.

Guardiola’s existing contract expires at the end of next season but there is hope that he will renew terms with the newly-crowned Premier League champions in the coming months.

The Catalan is nearing the end of his second year in Manchester, having previously spent four years at his boyhood club Barcelona and three in Germany with Bayern Munich.

Guardiola is expected to extend his stay by at least one year, tying him to the club until June 2020.

However, when asked about his long-term future ahead of Wednesday’s meeting with Brighton and Hove Albion, the City manager remained coy.

“I have one more year and next year I will be here,” he said. “Now it’s time to finish well and then start to talk about what we have to do next season, who is staying and who we have to buy.

“I’m not finishing in two weeks or one month – I have one more year. In football one more year is a lot and we’re going to talk to the club.

“They are friends of mine – Ferran [Soriano], Txiki [Begiristain], Khaldoon [Al Mubarak] – and we have time to talk fluently about what is best for the club and us.”

Guardiola, meanwhile, will prepare to join the rest of the club in bidding farewell to Yaya Touré, who will play at the Etihad as a City player for the final time on Wednesday.

Touré has established himself as a club great in his eight years in Manchester, having left Guardiola’s Barcelona to join City in the summer of 2010.

The 34-year-old Ivorian will make his first Premier League start of the season against Brighton, having appeared just 16 times in all competitions this term, and Guardiola admitted that he may be making a mistake in allowing the four-time African Player of the Year to leave.

“Of course, the quality there is no doubt. All the managers make mistakes, we tried to keep him at Barcelona but he decided to come here and it was an excellent decision,” he said.

“The players are nice people. You have to make a decision – sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad. I’ve made a lot of mistakes but when they are nice people I always wish them the best.

“He was so happy here, he’s had a lot of success. He loves the fans and the fans love him, hopefully it can be a huge support for a guy who deserves it after what has done. I was so happy with what he had done.

“If he lied to me he wouldn’t have been here through this period. But this season I decided from what I saw – maybe wrong, I don’t know – and I decided that it is the moment to finish our relationship as manager and player.”