Pep Guardiola: Manchester City boss can earn eye-watering £150m as central figure of club’s global masterplan

PEP GUARDIOLA can make himself a staggering £150million as the central figure in Manchester City’s global masterplan.

The Spanish supercoach took training for the first time yesterday having signed on for a minimum of three years.

Providing he delivers the ‘Pep Effect’ in terms of style and philosophy — as well as trophies — he will have the chance of extending his £15million-a-year mega-contract into a decade-long deal.

Manchester United may be presenting Jose Mourinho today as the man who can bring back the good times at Old Trafford.

But Guardiola is City’s very own special one, the long sought-after character seen as the ultimate key to the aim of world domination in football.

City’s chief of operations Omar Berrada believes Guardiola, 45, can make the club as revered as Barca. He said: “There is a long-term vision at this club.

“We are very ambitious and we feel that Pep is another part of the puzzle to help us in that journey and to help us continue to grow.

“We think that the impact he will have on the pitch in terms of making us more successful is going to have a big impact for us and this organisation.”

Even if he gets itchy feet, City want to keep him in the ‘family’ for as long as he wants.

It has been made clear to him if he wanted to seek pastures new after his three-year deal he could manage any of the clubs the City Football Group own.

Or simply remain as the overlord of City’s footballing philosophy.

City own Melbourne City FC and New York City FC — and Guardiola just happens to own an apartment overlooking the Big Apple’s Central Park. The organisation also own a 20 per cent stake in Yokohama FC.

City Football have also held secret talks with government officials in Argentina in plans to set up an academy to tap into South American talent.

On top of that, chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak is keen to either buy into a club in China or set up an academy.

City sold 13 per cent of their holding to China Media Capital, which has close links with the Beijing government, for £265m last December.

Guardiola will lead his first pre-season tour there and further talks will take place aimed at setting up a base within the country that is now spending gargantuan amounts in the football market.

At the crux of everything is Guardiola — which is why he is now the highest-paid manager in the world.

It is also why Txiki Begiristain, City’s director of football who made Pep boss of Barca in 2008, and CEO Ferran Soriano, who was Nou Camp vice-president at that time, pursued him relentlessly for almost four years.

Their mission — the sworn aim of owner Sheikh Mansour — is to make City not just the biggest and best in the world but also the most admired.

Since the 2008 Abu Dhabi takeover, the Etihad club has been sneered at by Europe’s snooty football aristocracy for trying to buy their way into that elite club.

Guardiola’s presence gives City the credibility the club has always sought, after ex-United boss Sir Alex Ferguson once dubbed them the “noisy neighbours.”

New £20.4m signing Ilkay Gundogan said of Guardiola and his new club: “He is the best coach in the world — and I am now playing at the centre of the football universe.”

Berrada added: “What Pep will bring is not just success on the pitch but he will work with the club to instil a philosophy in terms of the way we develop players.

“Pep has delivered success and by success I don’t just mean trophies but in his style of play and in the beautiful way that he likes his team to play.

“So he will bring a lot more to us than just trophies, we can also continue to grow with Pep.

“We keep an open mind and China is definitely a market in which we would like to participate and share and help develop football.”

Gundogan sees him not as a corporate entity but simply as a human being.

The German midfielder, 25, recovering from dislocating his knee in May, knew by then that Guardiola wanted him from Borussia Dortmund.

He feared the worst after the injury, but Guardiola reassured him and he said: “That meant a lot.
“I was really curious about the reaction. Did anything change?

“Maybe they didn’t want to buy me any more?

“But we spoke on the phone, Pep called me and when I asked him if anything had changed he said ‘definitely not, we still want you’.

“For me that was the last sign I needed to know that this move was the right thing for me to do.”