Manuel Pellegrini says he hopes outgoing Bayern Munich boss Pep Guardiola has the chance to work at Manchester City at some point in the future.
It has been announced Guardiola will be leaving the Allianz Arena in the summer, with the German champions already having lined up Carlo Ancelotti as his successor.
The former Barcelona coach has been linked with a move to a number of clubs in the Premier League, including City, and Pellegrini has no doubts that Guardiola will work in England at some stage.
"Pep Guardiola will work here [in England], I don't know if it is next season here [at City] or at another club. Someday he'll come here," he said in several national newspapers.
"And I hope he will have the option to work at Manchester City. I say that because I love this club and I hope, in the future, he can work here also. I am sure he will be very important for the club."
Pellegrini still has 18 months left on his current City contract, with the team competing for four trophies at home and in Europe, but the Chilean knows the football landscape can change quickly.
"My contract showed that the club was happy and that I was happy, but sometimes you can have a contract for six or eight years and, at the end of the season, you don't continue anyway," he said.
City travel to the Emirates to face Arsenal on Monday Night Football and, as they are without a win in their last four league games on the road, Pellegrini recognises his side's away form needs to improve ahead of important fixtures.
Asked if away form needed to get better, Pellegrini said: "Yes - we have to play five of the next six games away. The last results of the games we played away were not as good as we want.
"It is a good target to try and continue to return to our clean sheets, and it is a good target to make an important advance in our position in the Premier League, but playing away is always a bit more difficult."
With a trip to league leaders Leicester on December 29 also among the sequence, the upcoming festive period has the feel of a critical period, but Pellegrini has played down its significance.
"They are important games but we are just in the first round [of fixtures]. It is not just those two games," he said. "After Arsenal, we have to play against Sunderland. We are going to continue with the Capital One Cup in January and start with the FA Cup.
"There are a lot of things we have to consider, and the most important thing is to think game by game and not what can happen in May. So, they are very important games but not decisive."
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