Guardiola confirms he's quitting Barca It's the end of the Pep Guardiola era at Barcelona football club. The inspirational manager, the most successful in the Catalan club's history, had long-signalled this might be his final year. Now he says he's exhausted and needs to take a break from football, and will not be renewing his rolling one-year contract. Winning 13 trophies in just four seasons, Guardiola is credited with meshing the team into the most feared club football formation in the world; many say the greatest club side of all time. But this year the balance of power in Spain appears to have shifted to arch-rivals Real Madrid, near-certs to end Barca's hold on the title this season. Recently on Italian radio Guardiola made an off-mic comment that found its way home in which he said the Barca job was so high pressure it could only be done for three or four years.