Overview
- Manchester City announced on Wednesday that five senior members of Pep Guardiola’s first‑team backroom have left the club following the end of the 2025/26 season.
- The club named assistant coach Pep Lijnders, coach Kolo Toure, fitness coach Lorenzo Buenaventura, operations and player‑support lead Manel Estiarte, and head goalkeeping coach Xabi Mancisidor as the departing staff.
- Lijnders told Dutch media he declined offers to remain on a new manager’s staff or to take a head‑coach role inside the City Football Group because he and his wife want a permanent home for their growing sons.
- Three of the departing staff — Buenaventura, Estiarte and Mancisidor — were long‑time Guardiola allies who had worked with him at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, and their exits remove much of the institutional continuity around City’s playing and training methods.
- Reports continue to link Enzo Maresca to the managerial vacancy and say the incoming coach will now recruit a new backroom team, a change that will test Manchester City’s ability to preserve performance after a decade shaped by Guardiola and his aides.