Pep Guardiola says he would go back to Barcelona if he thought he was indispensable, hints at eventual return

Pep Guardiola says he would go back to Barcelona as manager if he thought he was “indispensable”, and has hinted at an eventual return to his boyhood club.

Guardiola was similarly successful in his first management role at Barcelona, but stopped short of saying he was eyeing a return to Spain.

The 51-year-old, talking at a gala put on by the Catalan Football Federation which saw him pick up an award for the best Catalan manager, said: “It’s a bad way to see it that I have to go back, because Pep left and Barca kept winning.

“You shouldn’t think like that.

“If I thought I was indispensable, I would return, but that’s not the case.

“There are stages, there are processes, and if one day I have to meet again, we will meet again in a natural way.”

“I feel very good there, very comfortable, they give me everything and I have very good friends close by,” Guardiola said.

“To continue you have to have very good players and when you have continuity in a club it’s because those above give you a lot of support.

“The city is not Barcelona, ​​I’m not at home. That’s obvious, but every three days there is a game and I prepare them. That makes me feel good in Manchester and at City. At City I feel at home.

“I also felt good in Germany [at Bayern Munich] and I had thought about stopping [at City], with my wife Cristina we spoke about it a lot, but they managed to tie me down.”