Guardiola and Lillo part ways
Pep’s assistant coach will no longer sit on the City bench at the Club World Cup.
After several years together, Pep Guardiola and his inseparable Juanma Lillo will no longer sit together on the City bench. This will be with immediate effect, meaning the Basque coach will not be helping the Catalan in the upcoming Club World Cup in a few weeks. So, after achieving numerous successes together, this beautiful football story comes to an end.
The decision had been made some time ago, and Guardiola was aware of it, so it didn’t come as a surprise to him these days. Those closest to him knew about it, although for logical reasons it wasn’t made public.
Don’t look for anything strange or any kind of separation between the two. The time simply came, for reasons that can’t be explained now, to separate their paths, and that’s it. Not even that. They’re not separating their paths. Rather, Juanma is taking a step back. He’s taking a break from his career, but he’s not retiring or anything like that.
Now, City coach Lillo will have to rebuild his bench, as his faithful squire Juanma will no longer be physically present, although Pep has relied on the Basque coach for years, many years. Their conversations won’t disappear, but his daily work will. Lillo has been in Pep’s shadow before coaching, during these years on the bench, and even when Lillo left City to coach Al Sadd in Qatar. Juanma left, but he was there just as he always was.
The trusted coach who surrounded Juanma and was at City, Íñigo Domínguez, will also be leaving the club. Another Basque goalkeeping coach, Xabi Mancisidor, will also be staying on after renewing his contract.
It’s now time to find an assistant for Pep, who has seen almost all of his second or third assistants leave or go solo: Lillo, Torrent, Maresca, Arteta … Who will be next?
