As much as Manchester City fans have come to love May, the traditional time for dishing out domestic trophies in England, the month of November also has a place fixed in their hearts.
Not only is it the time of the year when the reigning Premier League champions nearly always shift into overdrive on the pitch, it is also now the month Pep Guardiola chooses to deliver news on his future.
There will come a time, of course, when he tells supporters what they don’t want to hear.
But, for the third time since his arrival at the Etihad Stadium, he has quickened their pulses in November with an announcement that he is to stay beyond this season with a new two-year deal until 2027.
Guardiola staying to complete a decade and more in charge of City in a bid to add to the 18 major trophies he’s already won is a decision that has elicited relief and joy in equal measure.
Crucially, he will be the man calling the shots as the first-team squad undergoes a necessary overhaul across the next three or four transfer windows, and at the same time, he will be the public face of the club when the independent hearing delivers its verdict on the 115 charges brought by the Premier League.
City’s senior management were always confident that Guardiola would not jump ship when they needed him most. There had been a feeling, first expressed privately last June, that he would see out at least a decade in charge.
However, owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, Vice President, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Presidential Court, and club chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak have not exerted any pressure on the Catalan maestro as he grappled with the alternatives of a year off, or a move into international management with England and Brazil reported to be among those keen to make use of his extraordinary skills.
Conversations were had in Abu Dhabi earlier this season but no deadline for a decision was set. There is complete trust, respect and admiration between the three key men, each grateful to the other for playing such a major role in City’s recent domination of the Premier League.
In signing for another two years, 53-year-old Guardiola becomes only the fourth manager in City history to reach double figures in terms of years in charge.
Wilf Wild still leads the way with 14 years (1932-46), Les McDowall managed for 13 years (1950-63), and Ernest Magnall for a dozen seasons (1912-24).
As he approaches 500 games in charge, Guardiola has already surpassed everyone but McDowall who oversaw 590 matches.
The Catalan’s scarcely believable 72 per cent win percentage over more than nine seasons, eclipses every other City manager who has completed a whole year or more and his trophy haul of 18 is a huge 13 more than Joe Mercer, the man in second place.
While Guardiola has won four Premier League titles in succession – a unique historical feat – and brought City a domestic treble, 100 points in a season, a first ever Uefa Champions League crown and a Fifa Club World Cup, he is entering what promises to be the toughest 18 months since his first year in charge.
Not only are City lagging behind Liverpool at the Premier League summit but they lost their last European outing 4-1 in Portugal to Sporting Lisbon and are operating with an injury-depleted and ageing first-team pool.
In addition, Guardiola will soon be without the day-to-day counsel of his long time friend and Director of Football Txiki Begiritstain, who has decided to step down from his role at the end of the season and will be replaced by Hugo Viana from the aforementioned Sporting Lisbon.
Crucial decisions are coming at Guardiola thick and fast. He will have to deliver verdicts on the futures of long-time collaborators Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, John Stones, Kyle Walker, Ederson and Ilkay Gundogan.
The fact that he is staying may crystalise the thinking of some or all of those players, and should deliver an immediate boost after weeks of constant speculation and loss of form.
Begiristain’s decision to depart for an extended rest and then a new challenge didn’t impact on Guardiola’s own choice to stay, as he had known for two years that his former Barcelona colleague was leaving.
Of course, Guardiola is now much nearer the end of his reign at City than the beginning, and he won’t get close to the 20-year plus stints of Alex Ferguson at Manchester United and Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, but he is still a relatively young man in managerial terms and will undoubtedly coach again after City.
Such are the long hours that he works and the intensity that he brings to the job of winning and improving players, that he is likely to want a rest when he departs the Etihad – as he did after leaving Bayern Munich.
Managing City to amazing heights has not only taken a mental toll on Guardiola but has exerted a physical one, too. He has been battling a painful back issue for the past couple of years but ultimately decided the buzz he gets from winning and from pitting his wits against the new breed of Premier League bosses was just too big a lure.
His decision was never about financial reward or just about him – it never is. Guardiola asked himself if he could bring more success to City and at the same time remain content in his work and home life. The affirmative answers came after some soul searching and lengthy discussions with his wife, Cristina, and family.
Now the hard work begins again with a visit from Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday and then a vital home Champions League game against Feyenoord on Tuesday evening.
Guardiola is sure of a hero’s reception on Saturday at a packed stadium where only last month the 1894 fan organisation raised £1,000 in 24 hours to create a banner that read ‘Pep Guardiola, we want you to stay’ in his native Catalan.
He told those fans that he’d been in love since the first day he arrived at the club, it seems that love is not yet ready to die.
