Premier League, Man City won’t be the same after Guardiola

There had been signs for a while that Pep Guardiola was preparing to leave Manchester City. His departure this summer was finally confirmed on Friday morning, but it came after plenty of foreshadowing.

Take his appearance at Edgeley Park for Stockport County’s third-tier fixture against Port Vale at the end of April.

The official reason given for the surprise visit was that the Manchester City manager had promised Stockport owner, Mark Stott — Guardiola’s landlord — that he would attend a game. The joke answer delivered by Guardiola at a news conference three days later was that he had nothing else to do that night because, in his words, the Champions League semifinal first leg between Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich — which ended 5-4 and was considered by many to be an instant classic — was a “s— game.”

Those closest to Guardiola, however, suggested there was more to it, and that his surprise visit was more about his deep love of English football developed over a decade in the U.K.

Often when there’s been a break in his schedule, the 55-year-old has jetted back to Spain and his home city of Barcelona. But knowing that his time at City was coming to an end and that he was running out of time to honor Stott’s offer, he chose to spend his day off in Stockport, taking the opportunity to sample a lower-league atmosphere as a fan.

Guardiola confirmed on Friday that Sunday’s game against Aston Villa will be his last after 10 trophy-laden years at the Etihad Stadium. While the Premier League will miss him, City fans especially, the fabric of football in England is one of the things he will miss most.

He has a fondness for traditional stadiums like Selhurst Park, built more than 100 years ago in the middle of a south London housing estate. He liked Goodison Park, too, before Everton relocated to Hill Dickinson Stadium.

Guardiola’s love of the FA Cup comes, in part, from the competition sending big teams to places like Leyton Orient and…