Sports
What's wrong with Manchester City? The unfortunate truth is it might be the coach
What’s wrong with Manchester City?
I have a theory, although it’s not going to be a popular one with the team’s Emirati owners. The problem might be the coach, whom the club recently signed to a two-year extension that, based on the value of his previous contract, is likely worth more than $50 million.
And Pep Guardiola has earned that. In nine seasons at Manchester City, he has coached the team to 15 major trophies, including six of the last seven English Premier League titles and a treble in 2022-23. His teams have broken EPL records for consecutive titles won, most points in a season, most wins in a season, most goals in a season, largest title-winning margin and best goal differential, among other things.
Before that, Guardiola won two Champions League titles and a treble at Barcelona and three Bundesliga crowns in as many seasons at Bayern Munich. He is, without question, one of the greatest club coaches in soccer history.
But he might have overstayed his welcome in Manchester.
Guardiola, 53, has already coached more than twice as many games in Manchester as he did at any of his previous stops. If he stays through the end of his extension — and he apparently has more than 50 million reasons why he should — he’ll have spent 11 seasons at the club in a league where the average tenure of a manager is just 787 days, according to The Athletic.
Already Guardiola has been with City longer than most Americans stay in their first marriage. And just as with no-fault divorce, it’s not necessary to place blame when relationships go stale. It is, however, necessary to move on.
That’s where City finds itself after having won just once in its last 11 games in all competition, the worst slide in Guardiola’s coaching career. The latest loss came Sunday, at home, in the Manchester Derby, with City conceding twice in the final two minutes of regulation time in a 2-1 loss that dropped it to fifth in the EPL table.
City hasn’t finished outside the top four since 2010 and just once has a Guardiola-coached team finished lower than second in league play anywhere. The team is giving up goals at a higher pace (1.68 per game in all competition) than in any previous season under Guardiola, with the 42 scores City has conceded in 25 games this year matching the number it gave up in 61 games in 2020-21.
City has clearly lost its swagger. In the past it was cocky and confident; now it’s rattled and in disarray.
So why is this happening?
It’s certainly not because Guardiola has suddenly forgotten how to coach; despite City’s struggles he remains one of the game’s premier tacticians. Injuries, however, have been a factor, especially on the defensive end.
John Stones has played just 11 times this season, two more than Nathan Ake. And Kyle Walker, Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, Kyle Walker and Kevin De Bruyne have all lost time to injuries or illness. Yet no one has been missed more than Rodri, the team’s midfield anchor and recent Ballon d’Or winner, who has been out since late September because of an ACL injury.
Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola, right, leaves the field with Matheus Nunes after a match against Manchester United on Dec. 15.
(Dave Thompson / Associated Press)
City was unbeaten in eight games before Rodri was hurt; it has won just seven times in 17 games since.
Yet injuries — even devastating ones like Rodri’s — are a part of the game and City has overcome them before. What’s more likely at the center of the team’s sudden collapse this season is the fact the relationship between Guardiola and his players, like a poor first marriage, has gone stale.
Six of the team’s core players are older than 30, and all six — in addition to Foden — have been there since Guardiola’s second season in Manchester. They’ve been together for more than 440 games and thousands of practices, team meetings and halftime speeches.
There’s a good chance everything Guardiola says is something they’ve heard before. So even if they don’t tune it out — consciously or unconsciously — the message doesn’t resonate the way it did before.
This isn’t a new phenomenon. It’s why many national team managers last just one World Cup cycle and why the average stay of a club coach in Europe is only 402 days, according to the Swiss-based International Centre for Sports Studies. In South America it’s 99 fewer.
Guardiola’s tenure with Manchester City, on the other hand, is already the second longest in club history and more than two years longer than that of any other current Premier League manager.
Familiarity might be a strength in some professions, but coaching is not among them.
Consider Bob Bradley’s time with LAFC. In his first season, which ended with an MLS playoff appearance, players raved about his attention to even the smallest details, which included how well they bused their tables in the team cafeteria. By his fourth season, the team had a losing record and players were complaining that Bradley was too exacting. So the team replaced him with the more laid-back Steve Cherundolo and won a Supporters’ Shield and MLS Cup in Cherundolo’s first year.
“Different influence, different voice. I think that is part of the process,” said Ante Razov, an assistant coach under both managers.
I remember a similar lesson from decades ago. The day before the late John Robinson was to coach USC in its third Rose Bowl in four years, I was sent out to cover the Trojans’ final practice. Just before practice ended, the gates to the field swung open and the USC band, led by the song girls, marched in playing the school’s fight song.
As some of the greats from past USC teams suddenly emerged from the gathering crowd to give rousing speeches, it was obvious the team’s newer players were being whipped into a fervor. But behind them several juniors and seniors sat on their helmets and chatted among themselves, ignoring the pep talks altogether. When I asked why, one bored lineman said “we’ve heard this all before.”
Robinson never won another Rose Bowl and three years later he left for the NFL. The problem wasn’t the coach or the message, it was the fact the players had heard it all before.
The same might now be true on the east side of Manchester.
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The Cleveland Browns, rumored to be willing to trade down from their No. 6 overall selection in the 2026 NFL draft, did just that Thursday evening when the traded the pick to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Cleveland traded the sixth overall pick in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft to the Chiefs, in exchange for the ninth overall pick, as well as pick No. 74 in the third round and No. 148 in the fifth round.
The Browns now hold the No. 9 and No. 24 picks in the first round of the draft. They have a total of 11 picks in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Quarterbacks Shedeur Sanders and Deshaun Watson of the Cleveland Browns watch from the sidelines during a game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Huntington Bank Field in Cleveland, Ohio, on Sept. 7, 2025. (Jason Miller/Getty Images)
So the Chiefs gave up three picks in making the first trade of the first round.
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And we know what the fan bases of both clubs were thinking prior to the selection:
Chiefs fans were thinking we know something they don’t. And then the Chiefs selected cornerback Mansoor Delane from LSU — a move no doubt forced by the club’s trade of Pro Bowl cornerback Trent McDuffie to the Los Angeles Rams earlier in the offseason.
So, the Chiefs fill a major need, assuming Delane is indeed the quality corner they believe.
LSU Tigers CB Mansoor Delane celebrates a defensive stop against the Clemson Tigers at Memorial Stadium in South Carolina. (Ken Ruinard/USA TODAY Network)
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ESPN’s Mel Kiper didn’t like the pick, by the way. He had Delane as the 14th best player in the draft.
“It was a necessity,” ESPN analyst Louis Riddick, a former NFL defensive back, responded.
Browns fans weren’t thinking that way.
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They were probably thinking something akin to “We screwed up.”
This is understandable because they’re Browns fans and this could have been the Browns Browning.
Well, the Browns, moving down three slots, gave up a shot to draft linebacker Sonny Styles of Ohio State to the Washington Commanders, receiver Jordyn Tyson to the New Orleans Saints and then the Browns got their chance with the newly acquired No. 9 pick:
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Offensive tackle Spencer Fano of Utah.
Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry speaks at the NFL Scouting Combine at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, Ind., on Feb. 24, 2026. (Kirby Lee/Imagn Images)
Fano is good. And he makes the Browns offensive line instantly better because he’s going to likely start at left tackle for them.
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So what will Browns fans think of this pick?
They’ll probably wonder why the Browns didn’t pick Miami’s Francis Mauigoa, who went with the No. 10 pick to the New York Giants and promised “to die for” Jaxson Dart if necessary. They’ll wonder this because Browns fans expect the worst.
UCLA women’s basketball team has added some star power as its revamped roster begins to take shape.
Former Iowa State forward Addy Brown announced Thursday she is committing to UCLA, giving the Bruins one of the top players in the portal.
Brown averaged 11.9 points, 8.8 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game while shooting 43.1% from the floor and 33.8% from three-point distance with the Cyclones last season. She played just 21 games due to injury, but she is one of the better two-way players in the nation on the transfer market.
The 6-foot-2 forward co-starred with Audi Crooks for Iowa State the past few seasons and was a part of the mass exodus from the Cyclones’ program.
The Bruins reeled in former North Carolina junior guard Elina Aarnisalo and former Texas Christian senior guard Donovyn Hunter a few weeks ago, adding two more experienced players to the depleted starting lineup after a record six UCLA players were selected in the WNBA draft.
UCLA also signed Arkansas sophomore guard Bonnie Deas earlier this month. She is likely to start at point guard for the Bruins and is one of the best rebounding guards in the nation.
Along with returner Timea Gardiner, the Bruins are starting to form somewhat of a core to defend their national championship. Gardiner was a starter during UCLA’s 2024-25 Final Four run, but missed all of this past season with injury and has one season of eligibility left.
A lineup with Deas and Aarnisalo in the backcourt, Hunter at the three and Gardiner or Brown at the four and adding another big or Sienna Betts at the five would be a competitive lineup in the Big Ten.
Before going to TCU, Hunter played two seasons at Oregon State where she earned All-Pac-12 Defensive Team honorable mention and All-Pac-12 Freshman team honors. This past season with a Horned Frogs team that went to the Sweet 16, she was third in scoring with 10.2 points per game and averaged 3.2 rebounds per contest. She also shot 45.7% from the field and was 33.7% from beyond the arc.
Aarnisalo played her freshman year in Westwood after she originally committed to UCLA in 2025. Due to injuries from point guard Kiki Rice at the start of the 2024-25 season, she was forced into action early her freshman season and finished the year averaging 5.1 points per game.
The Helsinki, Finland, native averaged 10.2 points per game for the Tar Heels as a sophomore last season while shooting 47.3% from the field and 40.3% from the arc. The Bruins will desperately need to replace the three-point production lost with the departure of Rice, Gianna Kneepkens and Charlisse Leger-Walker.
UCLA coach Cori Close said she wanted to sign five players from the portal. She probably needs one more guard and a little more forward depth coming off the bench following the departures of Gabriela Jaquez and Angela Dugalic.
Lena Bilic and Amanda Muse are returners coming off the bench who got a little bit of playing time in the tournament and should have much larger roles, but they are still relatively unproven in late-game situations. They will get a chance to develop as backups with some more Power Four experienced starters now in the fold.
Trump says there’s ‘no time frame’ to secure Iran deal
Republican Minnesota Senate candidate Tom Weiler joins ‘Fox & Friends’ to discuss President Donald Trump’s blockade in the Strait of Hormuz as the U.S.-Iranian conflict continues and react to Gov. Tim Walz’s, D-Minn., criticism of the president.
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Saudi Arabia was among the countries seeing missiles fly into their airspace as a conflict broke out in the Middle East between the U.S. and Iran.
The prospect of Iran targeting its Middle Eastern neighbors like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates put some sporting events on hold and questioned others. Formula 1 races in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain were canceled and rumors swirled around whether future WWE events could be held in the kingdom.
Roman Reigns celebrates his win during WWE’s Royal Rumble at Riyadh Season Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Jan. 31, 2026. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE)
As the Trump administration brokered a ceasefire with Iran, WWE announced on Thursday that its Night of Champions premium live event will be held in Riyadh on June 27.
“We are proud to welcome Night of Champions back to Riyadh and look forward to delivering another unforgettable night of WWE action for fans in the Kingdom and around the world,” General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki Al-Sheikh said in a news release.
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Sami Zayn makes his entrance during Night of Champions at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on June 28, 2025. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE)
The release touted that WrestleMania 43 will still be held in Riyadh in 2027. It will be the first time that WrestleMania is held outside the U.S.
WWE president Nick Khan was adamant before WrestleMania 42 that the event will still take place in Saudi Arabia despite the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
“We’re doing WrestleMania next year in Saudi,” he said at a Sports Business Journal event, via The Sporting Tribune. “First time ever, WrestleMania will be outside the United States or Canada. And we’ve had a big, fruitful partnership with them.”
John Cena wrestles CM Punk during Night of Champions at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on June 28, 2025. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE)
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He added that those complaining about WrestleMania being held in Saudi Arabia were a “vocal minority.”
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