Pep Guardiola has threatened to resign from Manchester City if the club do not reduce the size of the squad over the summer. A number of first-team players did not make the squad for the 3-1 win against Bournemouth on Tuesday night and the head coach is unhappy with leaving so many out.
Abdukodir Khusanov, Savinho, James McAtee and Rico Lewis all had to watch on as City secured victory to move up to third in the Premier League. It shows the depth available to Guardiola but he has always preferred to work with a smaller group of players.
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“I said to the club I don’t want that [a bigger squad],” Guardiola said. “I don’t want to leave five or six players in the freezer. I don’t want that. I will quit. Make a shorter squad, I will stay. It’s impossible for my soul to give my players in the tribune [stands] that they cannot play. Now it happened to add players immediately.
“Maybe [for] three, four months we couldn’t select 11 players, we didn’t have defenders, it was so difficult. After people come back but next season it cannot be like that. As a manager I cannot train 24 players and every time I select I have to have four, five, six stay in Manchester at home because they cannot play. This is not going to happen. I said to the club. I don’t want that.”
City invested more than £200m in January to help reinvigorate their season, signing four players to increase competition after a number of serious injuries to key players. Kevin De Bruyne is one of those players who will definitely depart in the summer when his contract expires, while the future of Jack Grealish is in doubt and will be discussed at the end of the campaign.
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