Manchester City finally announced the news that has been long anticipated – Pep Guardiola will be the club’s new manager on a three-year deal beginning next season. Guardiola will finish this season with Bayern Munich while Manuel Pellegrini will see out the season with Manchester City. The Blues remain alive in four competitions including the League Cup where Pellegrini’s side will face Liverpool in the final.

The awkward timing of the change creates a fascinating dynamic. How will Manchester City perform for the remainder of the season? How will other leading clubs in England look upon this move? Does this indicate Manchester City is now a truly big club with a global footprint?

Since the takeover by Sheikh Mansour in 2008, Manchester City has been in a building phase. First overpaying for big-names from within England before having to take chances on second-tier English talent to comply with UEFA Financial Fair Play and domestic registration requirements. The club opted to build its own campus with training and youth facilities in East Manchester, the first of-its-kind for a top Premier League squad, but the return on that investment will not be seen for years. The £200 million Etihad Campus however serves as a statement of where Manchester City believes they are in terms of the European club hierarchy and speaks to the stability the ownership is trying to convey.

For years, the Blues have failed to integrate young homegrown players into the squad. Nineteen year-old Kelechi Iheanacho, who has eight goals across all competitions this season, is the first Manchester City player to be properly integrated from the youth squad since Micah Richards, Michael Johnson and Stephen Ireland. The efforts to bring into the senior team the likes of Vladimir Weiss, Abdul Razak, Karim Rekik, Jose Angel Pozo and Rony Lopes all ended in failure despite each having been labeled as young prodigies for the club. The Blues ownership and top brass will be hoping Guardiola can buck that trend and that Iheanacho will be just the first of several bright young homegrown stars for City.

Guardiola’s long-standing relationship with the Blues top brass, namely Tixi Bergstein and Ferran Soriano, certainly had much to do with the decision the Catalan manager made. But it’s not just familiarity with the men who helped him become Barcelona manager and achieve historic feats at his native club – it is the way they build a program and the culture that is growing at the club that probably made this choice simpler for Guardiola than many thought it would be.

How Manchester City will react this season is up for speculation and discussion. Many believe the club’s hierarchy have long ago briefed the players on this possibility and it has been widely reported Pellegrini learned last week of the coming change. The spirit demonstrated by the Blues players in the 3-1 League Cup semifinal second leg against Everton may very well have been directly related to Pellegrini’s impending departure. The overwhelming response from the side was followed up by a highly convincing 4-0 victory at Aston Villa in the FA Cup 4th Round speaks to this reality as well.

When Jupp Heynckes was replaced by Bayern by Guardiola in very much the same manner, the club then went on to win the treble. Guardiola has been unable to replicate quite that success over multiple competitions since taking over. In theory, Manchester City remain on course for a quadruple though winning the UEFA Champions League and FA Cup will be at least in theory more difficult than winning the League Cup and Premier League.

Like Heynckes, Pellegrini is in his 60’s. But unlike the former Bayern boss, he did not have the “big club” pedigree in Europe to fall back on before his current job. Pellegrini has not indicated that he plans to retire so his services are now very much in the shop window as well. Clubs like Chelsea, who are in the market for a new manager, will no doubt be tempted by Pellegrini’s sudden if not totally unexpected availability. His motivation to appear in control of the playing squad at Manchester City despite his imminent departure remains an important job-selling trait.

Barcelona and Bayern are elite clubs in world soccer that possess a very defined set of principles. Currently beyond Arsenal, whose value system is characterized by a single man, it would be difficult to find an English top-flight club that resembles that of Barcelona or Bayern.

Guardiola’s hiring can be attributed to City’s riches but his desire to sign with the Blues over more historically relevant Manchester United and Chelsea must have something to do with the visible stability of the City side. Unlike Chelsea and Manchester United, Manchester City have kept a consistent core of players the last several seasons and have now, via the Etihad Campus, invested in youth development and integrating the squad from senior side through youth levels with a consistent playing style and set of values. Few other clubs in England can claim this, and having managed at two clubs with a similar set of values in terms of playing style and talent development, Guardiola must find the project appealing and despite the Blues historical inferiority to Manchester United the infrastructure of the club appears to be much more to the Catalan bosses liking.

In summary, Pellegrini’s exit might spur the Blues playing side to perform ably for the outgoing manager while creating an opportunity for each player to do themselves a favor to impress the new boss. For Guardiola, City’s lack of historical relevance when compared to Manchester United and the geographic disadvantage when compared to Chelsea seem to have been key reasons why Guardiola would want to take on this challenge.

With him in charge, City fans can now envision the club becoming a true force in Europe.