In a surprisingly sharp statement, Pep Guardiola has demanded that Manchester City’s bosses sell players.
After the 3-1 victory over AFC Bournemouth, Kevin De Bruyne should have been the star of the show, giving an emotional speech in his last home game for Manchester City and moving his coach to tears. But Pep Guardiola soon stole the headlines in England.
Completely unexpectedly, the Catalan threatened to resign on Wednesday evening. The reason: Guardiola is determined to go into the coming season with a smaller squad. “I don’t want to have to put five or six players on ice. I don’t want that. I’ll quit. Reduce the squad – then I’ll stay,” he demanded openly from the ManCity bosses.
In the home win against Bournemouth, which means the dethroned champions have their Champions League qualification in their own hands on the final matchday, Guardiola was forced to drop Savinho, Abdukodir Khusanov, James McAtee, and Rico Lewis from his squad.
In the winter, ManCity signed Omar Marmoush, Nico, Khusanov, and youngster Vitor Reis for around €200 million after a string of poor results and injuries. “For three or four months, we couldn’t even pick a team of eleven players, we had no defenders, it was so difficult,” Guardiola said. “But it can’t stay like this next season.” On Wednesday evening, Ballon d’Or winner Rodri, who had been out injured for months, also made his celebrated comeback.
“That won’t happen – I’ve told the club that.”
Guardiola has often emphasized that he prefers to work with a compact squad. “As a coach, I can’t train 24 players. Then every time I select the squad, I have to leave four, five, six players at home in Manchester because they can’t play. That won’t happen. I’ve told the club that.”
He simply finds it “emotionally” difficult to put players on the bench. It’s also bad for team spirit. “The players create a different connection with each other. We’ve lost that a little bit this season.”
So it will be exciting to see who ManCity will part ways with in the summer, apart from De Bruyne. Guardiola, who is under contract until 2027, will not be one of them.
