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City have been the dominant force in the English game during his 10 seasons in charge, a tenure in which they won the Premier League six times (including a record four in a row), as well as the Champions League and a historic Treble.
But to what extent does the unprecedented catalogue of more than 100 charges of alleged breaches of Premier League financial rules cast a shadow over Guardiola's time in charge?
With City having always denied wrongdoing, the answer will only become clear when the outcome of the case is finally revealed.
An independent commission is yet to publish a ruling almost a year and a half after a disciplinary hearing concluded.
Whether the saga has played a role in the timing of Guardiola's expected departure, and whether he wanted to leave City before the result was known, is unclear.
But until that time, it is inevitable that questions will be asked about how exactly City achieved the trophy-laden era it has enjoyed since the takeover of the club by billionaire Abu Dhabi royal Sheikh Mansour - the deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates - in 2008.
What are the charges?
The 115 charges relate largely to a range of alleged financial rule breaches by City between 2009 and 2018.
While there is no suggestion that Guardiola was aware of any alleged wrongdoing, there is a two-year overlap with his tenure at Etihad Stadium, which began in the summer of 2016.
The charges relate to the:
alleged failure to provide accurate financial information, including details for player and manager payments, from 2009-10 to 2017-18 seasons
alleged failure to comply with Uefa's financial fair play (FFP) rules from 2013-14 to 2017-18
alleged breaches of Premier League's profitability and sustainability rules (PSR) from 2015-16 to 2017-18.
City also face multiple charges that they failed to co-operate with the Premier League's investigation between December 2018 and February 2023.
As manager, Guardiola has not been involved with the legal process. But he has not been able to claim that these charges only apply to a period before his arrival.
The charges are thought to relate to allegations first made in 2018 by German media outlet Der Spiegel, which published leaked internal City emails.
It claimed that the documents showed the club had inflated sponsorship revenue from state-owned airline Etihad and state-controlled telecoms firm Etisalat, by disguising direct investment from its holding company - Mansour's Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG) - as sponsorship income, by channelling money through the companies' accounts.
This, it was alleged, was a means of getting around FFP rules introduced by Uefa in 2011, and PSR brought in by the Premier League in 2012, two similar systems of spending control designed to limit clubs' losses. City and the companies denied wrongdoing.
There then followed further allegations of misreporting financial information centred on documents that claimed to show secret 'off-the-books' payments to previous manager Roberto Mancini via consultancy fees from a club in Abu Dhabi, and giving players more money than was officially going through the accounts so that recorded spending was less than it actually was. Mancini denied any wrongdoing.
In short, City effectively stand accused of subverting Premier League rules that clubs had agreed to comply with, and of distorting the competition over multiple seasons.
City - who have always denied they are state-owned - said the emails were obtained illegally and were an "attempt to damage the club's reputation", insisting they were innocent.
What has Guardiola said?
Back in 2019, while City were being investigated by Uefa, and in the wake of the allegations about payments to Mancini, Guardiola reacted furiously when asked during a news conference following the FA Cup final if he had ever received similar payments.
Guardiola replied: "Honestly, do you think I deserve to have this type of question, the day we won the [domestic] Treble, did I receive money? Are you accusing me of receiving money?"
The journalist involved explained that he had previously asked City, but in the absence of an answer, felt he had little choice but to question the manager.
Guardiola has always backed his bosses publicly, even when, in 2020, City were given a two-year ban from European competitions by Uefa for alleged FFP breaches, a suspension that was eventually overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Two years later, Guardiola said he would walk away from City if he felt the club's hierarchy had ever lied to him. "They explain and I believe them," he said.
"Some believe his defence of City's owners was misplaced, but it's hard to think that many employees would have acted differently if placed in the same position," says Jotischky.
In 2023, after his club had been charged by the Premier League, Guardiola accused City's rivals of pre-judging the case.
"My first thought is we're already being condemned," he said. "It's the same with Uefa, we were already condemned. The club proved we were completely innocent."
He also urged the Premier League to speed up its handling of the case, calling for a verdict "this afternoon" or "tomorrow".
The fact that City had been accused of failing to co-operate with the league's investigation did not seem to trouble him.
It was notable that Guardiola also said: "In the end, I know fairly that what we won we won on the pitch. We don't have any doubts."
In 2024, having signed a two-year contract extension, he vowed to stay at City, even if they were relegated as punishment. "People say 'what happens if we are relegated?' I will be here," he claimed.
His most recent comments on the case came in February 2025, when he said he expected to learn the outcome of a hearing, that had finished weeks earlier, "in one month".
To the frustration of many, including him too perhaps, that prediction has proved wide of the mark. More than three years since City were charged by the Premier League, the case drags on.
Since then, Guardiola has added the Treble, his sixth league title and a domestic cup double to the remarkable collection of silverware he has achieved while in Manchester.
He must now hope that a decade of Premier League history - and his part in it - does not one day need to be rewritten.
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