When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

Just lately, by Manchester City standards, the going has been tough.

Four defeats in a row; ageing squad ravaged by injuries; best player out for the season.

And hanging over all that, those 115 charges, punishment for which – if found guilty – could be relegation.

All the vital signs of an era coming to an end.

So what does Pep Guardiola do?

He commits for another season with the option of one more after that.

Pep Guardiola is tough – he has just shown that.

He hasn’t even asked for a break clause if City lose their ongoing court case and are kicked out of the EPL.

In fact, you suspect that he’d relish the challenge of bringing them back up from a lower tier.

“Even (if it were) League One,” as he put it in vowing to stay when such a penalty was first mentioned.

The charges are still being heard and a verdict isn’t expected until January.

There are other ominous portents.

City’s director of football and Pep’s close friend, Txiki Begiristain, is quitting at the end of the season.

They have breakfast together most days and discuss the respective merits of holding midfielders over their coffee and croissants. He’ll miss that.

He’s in the final season of his own contract.

So is Kevin De Bruyne who has started in just 19 of a possible 49 EPL games since his injury in the 2023 Champions League final.

Those of Ederson, Kyle Walker, Bernardo Silva and John Stones are up in 2026.

How ever it goes from here, some sort of rebuild will be necessary.

It may start as early as January.

But even before any reinforcements arrive, the news is a massive boost for City – and a commensurate blow to their rivals.

Despite all the woes, City are just five points behind leaders Liverpool and are four clear of third-placed Chelsea.

It’s around where they usually are at this time of the year.

Of the four successive defeats, one was in the Carabao Cup that Pep didn’t care about and another in the Champions League which is unlikely to matter.

Only two have been in the EPL.

Although Pep’s decision will be enough to rejuvenate the squad, winter additions are still likely.

A replacement for Rodri is the most critical as now it’s taking two players to do his job and they’re still not half the man he was.

Mateo Kovacic loses the ball too often and whoever he’s paired with isn’t on the same wavelength.

Ilkay Gundogan is not the player he was and Mattheus Nunes – although improving – is not the player Pep thought he could be.

Pep will have had his eye on players elsewhere but Rodri’s No 2 for Spain, Martin Zubimendi, is unlikely to be one of them.

Having not wanted to leave for Liverpool, it’s hard to see the home-loving Basque becoming City’s saviour in the depths of winter.

The search would have been underway as soon as Rodri collapsed but the rumour mill has yet to come up with a convincing name.

Maybe there isn’t one and it will be up to Pep to devise a better system.

This is what he does, after all. The chess grandmaster now needs to get out of check.

After the 4-1 drubbing by Sporting two weeks ago, he was asked about the challenge ahead. His reply was: “I love it. I have to face it.”

He’s come a long way since that trophyless first campaign when doubts were raised.

Eighteen trophies in eight and a half seasons including six Premier League titles are his answer – and a phenomenal haul.

There are still those who say it’s easy if you have the money he spent.

Such comments betray almost total ignorance of the game.

Yes, he’s had the best part of £1 billion but so have many others – including United – and no one has played or dominated like City.

If he left at the end of this season, he would still be one of the game’s all-time great managers.

He’s not just won stuff, he’s changed the way the game is played – at many levels.

Of course, he can’t compete with Alex Ferguson’s 26 years at the helm of United.

But if City do drop a division, it would give him a chance to do something Fergie never did – bring them up from the nether reaches.

By not leaving at the same time as Begiristain, he should enable City to avoid the chaos that followed Fergie and CEO David Gill leaving United together.

And he would quite enjoy the journey to some of English football’s more passionate outposts.

When cup draws have sent him to smaller grounds in ulu places, he has loved it.

He has a deep fascination for football’s roots, is a keen historian, and loves living in England – despite the weather.

England is manageable on £20m a year and he is granted more privacy.

Jurgen Klopp and Mo Salah all make that point with salaries that insulate against the cold.

Four years in the goldfish bowl at Barcelona drove him to distraction – and a year’s sabbatical in New York where no one recognised him.

But he still has a Fergie-like hunger for the game – and for trophies. And he genuinely loves City.

He wants to see kids like Rico Lewis and Oscar Bobb develop into the stars he thinks they can be; and he’d like to coax even more goals out of Erling Haaland.

There will be an extra buzz at the Etihad on Sunday as Spurs turn up for the big game (01.30am Monday in Malaysia).

Already reverting to type, Ange Postecoglou’s side provide the ideal opponents for City to get back to winning ways.

And with hopes that at least some of the walking wounded will be fit to return, it could be a pivotal moment in City’s season as well as Pep’s tenure.

A visit from Feyenoord comes next and then a trip to Anfield.

You suspect the timing of Pep’s decision bore this in mind. Title decider?

Too early but Pep has already greatly improved City’s chances.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.