From scratching head in anguish to snapping at fans, the signs of Pep Guardiola’s secret ‘marriage breakdown’
THE worst spell of Pep Guardiola’s managerial career has played out in front of the world.
But in private, the Manchester City manager has also been suffering the heartbreak of the breakdown of his 30-year relationship with wife Cristina Serra.
Guardiola’s behaviour during City’s wretched run has been put down to him struggling to cope with the unfamiliar feeling of losing.
He has snapped at autograph hunters and fans. He has bared his soul in interviews, branding himself “not good enough”.
And while watching his team let a 3-0 lead slip against Feyenoord, the City boss became so agitated that he left scratch marks on his face.
Now it appears there was a lot more going on beneath the surface – and the signs were there all along.
Reports from Spain that Guardiola and Cristina finally split last month are a reminder that one of the most relentlessly successful coaches of all time is also a human being with the same problems as anyone else.
Guardiola’s on-field issues have arrived in the ninth season of his reign at City, the longest he has spent in charge of one club.
But he and Cristina have been an item for more than three decades, after meeting as teenagers in 1994 and marrying in 2014.
And the sacrifices as Guardiola tried to find that work/life balance will have been difficult, even at the best of times.
Guardiola and Cristina have been living apart since 2019 when she returned to Barcelona with daughter Valentina, the youngest of the couple’s three children.
The explanation given at the time was that Cristina was taking a leading role in her family’s fashion business, Serra Claret, which is based in the Catalan city.
Although Guardiola made trips back to Barcelona, when the hectic fixture schedule allowed, the pair inevitably ended up leading separate lives.
Rumours of a split emerged in the spring. Yet soon afterwards Cristina was in Manchester to celebrate City’s unprecedented fourth title in a row and there were other public displays of togetherness, too, such as a day out at Wimbledon last July.
Photos also emerged of the whole family – including eldest child Maria and son Marius – enjoying a summer holiday in Egypt.
But it seems as though Guardiola went into the new season with doubts not only about his football future.
His City contract was due to expire in June and speculation grew when the club confirmed in October that director of football Txiki Begiristain, Guardiola’s old Barcelona pal and close ally, would be leaving at the end of the campaign.
The City boss signed a two-year extension in November as results started to slide.
The following month he and Cristina are said to have agreed to end their marriage.
And it seems significant that the biggest crisis of Guardiola’s reign at City has coincided with personal difficulties.
His recent confrontation with autograph hunters outside his home in Manchester is just the latest example of him losing his cool.
After City lost the FA Cup final to rivals United in May, Guardiola reacted angrily to goading from a supporter.
And as the club slumped from the top of the Premier League to miles off leaders Liverpool, he showed signs of stress and vulnerability that no-one had seen before.
After Guardiola scratched himself during the collapse against Feyenoord in late November, he said: “I cut myself with my fingernail.
“I want to harm myself.”
It was an off-hand comment, a half-joke to explain why what was unfolding on the pitch was reflected in his appearance.
But in these sensitive times, Guardiola had to issue a statement soon afterwards, saying: “My answer was in no way intended to make light of the very serious issue of self harm.”
Of course it wasn’t. Yet this was just another example of the intense scrutiny and pressure that Guardiola has to live with constantly.
And he freely admits he has been feeling it.
When asked if he was in any way enjoying the biggest challenge of his managerial career at all, Guardiola said: “I don’t enjoy it all. I don’t like it.
“I don’t sleep as good as when I won every game. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have to do it.
“This shall pass, I don’t know when, but nothing is eternal, not even our lives. “Maybe it’s more unusual to win four Premier League in a row, right?
“So in that moment I was stable enough, I was happy because I eat better and sleep better.
“But I was not thinking differently to who I am.
“I’m the same person as four Premier Leagues in a row and in that situation, I have the same doubts.”
Guardiola was adamant that his passion to make City succeed was undimmed and that was why he had signed the new deal.
Yet he also left open the possibility that he would not be able to turn things around.
Guardiola said: “If I extend, it is because I feel it. I’m not sitting here just for what I’ve done, or because still I’m happy.
“Still I want to try. But I don’t want to stay in the place like I feel I’m a problem.
“I don’t want to [just] because the contract is there. My chairman knows it.
“And I said to him, give me the chance to try to come back. And after if we are not able to do it, we have to change.”
But it seems Guardiola and his childhood sweetheart have decided they were unable to carry on and had to make a change.