Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola wants the English Football League to change their rules to allow Marc Guehi to play in the Carabao Cup final against Arsenal.
Guehi was ineligible to play as City completed a 5-1 aggregate victory over Newcastle in Wednesday’s semi-final second leg and is also set to miss out when they take on the Gunners on 22 March at Wembley.
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City signed the 25-year-old England centre-back from Crystal Palace after their 2-0 first leg win over the Magpies.
However, competition rules dictate that he had to have joined them “prior to the closure of the Winter transfer window, or the first leg of the semi-final (whichever is sooner)” to be eligible to play.
“Hopefully we can convince the Carabao Cup that Marc [Guehi] can play the final. I don’t understand why he cannot play the final,” Guardiola said.
“You buy a player for a lot of money and he is not able to play for a rule I don’t understand. Hopefully they can change it,” he added.
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City’s other January signing, winger Antoine Semenyo, arrived at the club from Bournemouth four days prior to their trip to the north east for the first leg against Newcastle, in which he scored.
“Antoine arrived before the first [game] so could play. And now it’s the final. Why should he [Guehi] not play? Why not? We pay his salary, he is our player,” Guardiola added.
“I said to the club, they have to ask, definitely. I don’t understand the reason why he cannot play in the final in March, when I have been here for a long time.
“The rules to buy a player depends on Fifa, Uefa, the Premier League who say, OK the transfer window is open, when you buy a player you have to play, no? It’s logic. Of course we are going to try to ask [for] him to play. Pure logic.
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Asked what he thought the answer will be from the EFL, City’s Spanish boss, added: “No. But we will try.”
City have already benefited from one rule change this season that allowed players to play for two teams in the same competition, instead of being cup tied.
That allowed Semenyo and Max Alleyne to feature in the semi-final matches, despite appearing for Bournemouth and Watford respectively in previous rounds.
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