Pep Guardiola is facing issues in his personal life that the club fear could have an adverse impact on the start of Manchester City's season.
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ToggleGuardiola's relationship with estranged wife, Cristina Serra, is reported by to have moved from "friendly" to only "cordial", with a divorce said to be "imminent." There is far from a complete breakdown, but things are expected to be finalised sooner rather than later and there has been a desire for "more urgency" to fully divorce after initially amicably separating back in January.
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While Manchester City were enduring a disastrous run of results last season, which eventually contributed to their worst Premier League finish since 2015-16, Guardiola's marriage of 11 years was ending. The 54-year-old has known Serra since he was 18 and they have three children together. While there is no evidence of a direct link between City's form and Guardiola's personal life, the insinuation is there are "fears" at City that the start of a crucial season could be "overshadowed" if he is still working through personal issues off the pitch.
Guardiola has already made clear his plan to leave City at the end of his current contract in the summer of 2027. He intends to take a break from football at that point and recently suggested he might not return to the sport for up to 15 years.
Having competed at the FIFA Club World Cup until early July, City are only just back in training for pre-season and will go into the Premier League campaign off the back of only a single warm up friendly – against sister club Palermo on August 19. The league season starts on a week later against Wolves.