Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak says the English champions want to keep Pep Guardiola as manager for many years to come. The Spaniard -- who has guided City to successive league titles and an unprecedented domestic treble last term -- nipped speculation in the bud that he would leave at the end of this campaign by saying last week he wanted to stay longer.

Guardiola — who stayed for four seasons with Barcelona and three terms with Bayern Munich — took over at City in 2016 and is under contract till 2021.

This season has been a testing one for him in the title race, though, with Liverpool holding a nine point lead over City with just over a third of the campaign gone.

However, Mubarak is confident that Guardiola can turn the tables on Liverpool in the title race.

Mubarak said Guardiola was much more than just a great manager and he would like him to remain at the club for a long time to come.

“Pep has been an incredible asset to this organisation,” Mubarak said.

“We can speak about his managerial accomplishments for hours but I think as a person, as an individual, as a friend, he’s been a core part of what we’ve accomplished here over the last three years.

“He’s very committed, we’re committed to him.

“We have a great relationship, we have a great environment here.”

Meanwhile, the parent company of Premier League champions Manchester City has been given a global record sports valuation of £3.73 billion ($4.8 billion) after US equity firm Silver Lake acquired just over 10 percent of the company on Wednesday.

Silver Lake have signed a definitive agreement to make a £389 million ($500 million) investment in City Football Group (CFG).

CFG, which has a stake in seven football clubs globally, including in the US, Australia, Japan and China, already has 12 percent of its equity held by a consortium of Chinese institutional investors led by Chinese media and entertainment conglomerate CMC Inc.

Agence France-Presse