How Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City renewal will affect Real Madrid

The headline news this week in football has been the decision of Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola to stay and renew his contract beyond the end of the current season and his current deal. It will have a knock-on effect across the elite in Europe.

Including on Real Madrid. Los Blancos have been looking at a couple of their players for some time as potential recruits, but Guardiola’s decision makes Rodri Hernandez and Erling Haaland more likely to remain at the Etihad, report Cadena Cope. After the exit of Toni Kroos, and before Rodri’s anterior cruciate ligament injury, Real Madrid had identified Rodri as potentially their top recruit for next season, but the presence of Guardiola makes him much less likely to leave in the near future.

Haaland too is succeeding under Guardiola, and he is also less likely to move, although he is not as wedded to the Catalan coach as the Ballon d’Or. The Norwegian striker has been linked to the Spanish capital since before he moved to City, and there is still a current of opinion that eventually Los Blancos will move for him. For some time, the dream at the Santiago Bernabeu has been to unite Haaland and Mbappe, although that was before the full emergence of Vinicius Junior.