Pep Guardiola reveals 27-word message issued to him by Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak amid poor run of form | OneFootball

Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak has been in frequent contact with Pep Guardiola throughout the club’s tough run of form in recent weeks and months.

The reigning Premier League champions find themselves in somewhat of a rut across competitions despite closing out the 2024 calendar year with a victory in Premier League action away to Leicester City.

Across a period of 14 matches in all competitions, Pep Guardiola and his Manchester City players managed to record just two victories, leaving them in 22nd position in the UEFA Champions League and 6th in the Premier League.

Victories have come against Nottingham Forest in that time, with Nuno Espirito Santo’s squad now above City in the English top-flight table, and most recently against Leicester thanks to goals from Savinho and Erling Haaland.

Speaking during a recent media address, manager Pep Guardiola was quizzed on whether he has remained in touch with Khaldoon Al Mubarak – the Manchester City chairman – throughout the club’s concerning run of form.

“Every week we talk, I incredibly feel supported, has behaved again – maybe like it happened in the first season but it was completely different – and we are both knowing it,” Guardiola told reporters.

He continued, “When there is a moment that something wrong happened, we are going to take a decision and it happens but I feel incredibly, incredibly supported by him, from of course Txiki (Begiristain) and Ferran (Soriano).

“But especially Khaldoon in those terms and always said, ‘OK, the situation is what it is and what we have to do to get better, to improve the team, and come on, for the next one’, always it has been positive.”

Al Muarak, Soriano, and Begiristain will likely be hard at work at present deciding how best to go about reshaping Manchester City in the coming months, with various reports claiming that the club are aware of the need for a revamp of the first-team squad.

That work is likely to begin this month in the January transfer window, with the word in various quarters being that the Premier League champions could recruit as many as three new players to give the club the best chance of a second-half revival this campaign.