Manchester City: Juventus backed into Evens to be Guardiola's next club

The football world was rocked on Friday with the news that Manchester City have been banned from European competitions for two seasons. Mike Norman tells us what impact that has had on some betting markets...

Juventus have been backed into Evens to be Pep Guardiola's Next Managerial Job following Friday's news that Manchester City have been banned from all UEFA competitions in 2020/21 and 2021/22.

The ban comes after UEFA ruled City had, "committed serious breaches of Club Licensing and Financial Fair Play Regulations". The club was also fined just under £25m.

Serie A next up for Pep?

The ban throws serious doubt into the future of Pep Guardiola who earlier on Friday - before the news broke - admitted that he could be sacked if City fail to make significant progress in this season's Champions League.

Guardiola can be backed at 16-1 to be the Next Premier League Manager to Leave, though with City holding a firm stance and appealing UEFA's decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, there's a feeling that Guardiola will remain at the helm for the remainder of this season at least.

Beyond this season however, and should Man City fail in their appeal against the UEFA ban, then Guardiola's future will be called into question. Serie A is one of the two remaining 'big five' European leagues where he is yet to manage and a move to Juventus would surely hold huge appeal.

The Italian giants are facing fierce competition from Inter Milan as they bid to defend their Serie A title, and manager Maurizio Sarri came under some criticism last week after publicly questioning his side's attitude following last week's surprise 2-1 defeat to Verona.

Poch favourite to take over at the Etihad

The one thing absolutely certain is that Guardiola will leave Manchester City at some point in the future, and it's Maurcio Pochettino who is the 5/2 favourite to take over at the Etihad in the Next Permanent Man City Manager market.

The former Southampton and Tottenham boss has been out of work since being sacked by Spurs in November and just last week admitted that he'd love to work in the Premier League again, though he also said that opportunities were hard to come by, suggesting that he will only be open to offers from one of the big six clubs.

Possible points deduction

Although highly unlikely at this stage it has been suggested that Manchester City could also face a Premier League points deduction as the Financial Fair Play rules are similar in England as they are with UEFA.

Having been matched at 1.01 in the Top 4 Finish market City have eased out to 1.04 on the back of yesterday's news.

And of course, City are still very much in this season's Champions League and will play their last-16 first leg tie at Real Madrid on Wednesday 26 February.

The Citizens are currently trading as 5.40 favourites to lift the trophy ahead of Liverpool 5.70, Bayern Munich 7.80, Barcelona and PSG, both 8.60.