According to a book, Manchester City almost didn’t get Pep Guardiola as their new manager because he insisted on living in the city center.
Many of the club’s players are said to prefer to live away from the noise and bustle, preferring to reside in lush homes in Cheshire instead.
Guardiola, on the other hand, is thought to want to be right in the middle of the action, which has City executives sweating as they try to locate him a home.
In February 2016, the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager agreed to take over from Manuel Pellegrini at the Etihad and began seeking for a new home.
However, Pol Ballus and Lu Martin’s book, Pep’s City: The Making of a Superteam, reveals that the club was concerned he would break his word.
Indeed, the novel tells how Txiki Begirisain, the director of football, sent David Quintana, the player relations manager, to meet with Guardiola in Munich.
‘In Munich, the Guardiola family had lived in a large mansion on Sophienstrasse,’ wrote Ballus and Martin.
‘Pep sought comparable accommodations in Manchester, and the issue was on the verge of becoming a deal-breaker.
‘Quintana and Pep met at a local Vietnamese restaurant over a leisurely three-hour lunch.
‘Lunch was spent discussing crucial aspects of the club’s organization, infrastructure, and players, but questions about the Guardiolas’ new home remained unresolved.
‘The issue was that Pep refused to live anywhere other than the city center, and there just wasn’t the suitable property there to satisfy him.
‘It was non-existent. All of Begiristain’s plans were going up in flames. The arrangement to bring Pep to City was in jeopardy.’
However, the matter was settled when City promised to ‘construct’ Guardiola the home he desired, despite the fact that the family had moved into a luxury apartment.
His present address is Deansgate CitySuites in central Manchester.
The 16-story structure houses 237 one- and two-bedroom flats, each with its own well-equipped kitchen and huge living room area.
Two levels are occupied by privately owned flats, where Guardiola is said to spend some of his free time away from the field.