MAN CITY HAS WON THE GUARDIOLA RACE, AND ITS PREMIER LEAGUE RIVALS KNOW IT

The Catalan looks destined to take over at the Etihad Stadium, and despite a wall of silence there are clues to suggest City's rivals have given up the chase, writes Sam Lee.
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It is regarded as the worst kept secret in soccer, and for good reason. Barring a shock turn of events, Pep Guardiola will manager Manchester City next season, it's just that nobody will make it official yet.

Goal has long reported that City is in the driving seat for Guardiola, that the excellent relationship between its sporting director, Txiki Begiristain, and the Catalan coach has been part of a long-term plan cooked up in Abu Dhabi.

It almost goes without saying by this point that the two men are close friends, and have been since playing alongside each other in the Barcelona first team in the early 1990s. Txiki was the man to hand Guardiola the reins at Camp Nou back in 2008 and they have talked frequently, if not weekly, ever since he left the club in 2012.

When City took on Barca in the 2009 Gamper Trophy many of the English club's decision makers were seduced. Not only by Barcelona's brand of football but by the way the club itself is run from top to bottom. This was a footballing giant that had been hauled off its knees to once again dominate the European game, thanks not only to Lionel Messi, Xavi and Andres Iniesta, or even Guardiola, but also a select few businessmen.


GUARDIOLA: I'M LEAVING BAYERN FOR THE PREMIER LEAGUE
Ferran Soriano, the economic vice president, and Txiki, the director of football, were two of those key figures. They, of course, were swept away to the Etihad Stadium as part of a long-term project hatched to establish City as a European giant. Omar Berrada, the former head of sponsorship at Camp Nou, has also been recruited and was influential in City's recent linkup with a Chinese consortium.

It is inevitable that Txiki and Pep will have talked about the City manager's job and the Blues have had more than an inkling that the Catalan will soon be in their dugout. Even so, there was a surge in confidence as Christmas approached that the hard work has been done. After two and a half successful but often fractious years at Bayern Munich, it was suggested to City's top brass that the Catalan was looking forward to a much calmer working environment.

Publicly, Guardiola confirmed on Tuesday that the Premier League will be his next destination. But that will come as no surprise to any of his former colleagues now employed by the City Football Group. Nor will it shock any of City's rivals.

Neither Pep nor City will make an official announcement before the end of the season. A wall of silence has been erected.

But there are clues which can be used to point anxious supporters in the right direction. Goal reported in December that four top Premier League clubs, as well as an unnamed national team, had made a pitch to Pep. It seems, though, that they were in vain.
At the start of last month, those in the know around Manchester United reported that Ed Woodward considered Louis van Gaal to be a genius and that a move for Guardiola was not on the agenda. It appeared curious at the time but Woodward stood by his man even when Van Gaal came extremely close to losing his job over Christmas. In fact, the man most likely to benefit from the Dutchman's sacking was Jose Mourinho, according to a number of reports from sources close to the club and the former Chelsea boss.

Chelsea itself is in the market for a new manager to take over from Guus Hiddink in the summer, but it has not been linked with Guardiola to any great length, either. Indeed, Manuel Pellegrini, the man who will depart the Etihad this summer, is one of the leading candidates. Roman Abramovich, as reported by Marca, wants the Chilean to unite the fractured dressing room at Stamford Bridge.

Arsenal is the final English club to have made a pitch to Guardiola, and tongues were wagging across Europe when Bild revealed that Arsene Wenger himself had contacted his old adversary about continuing his dynasty in north London. But later that very same day Bild insisted Guardiola will become football's highest-paid coach when he moves to City.

Those are details, even if they are accurate, that will not be confirmed any time soon. No such information will leak out from Manchester City or the Guardiola camp, certainly.

But for anybody looking closely enough, there are clues. As much as the Blues have put in years of groundwork to try to replicate Barcelona's global dominance, and as much as they clearly covet Pep Guardiola, perhaps the news coming out of their Premier League rivals is more telling. They know they've lost the race.