Manchester City head coach Pep Guardiola has spectacularly claimed that he will “quit” the Citizens this summer unless their squad size is reduced.
The 2023-24 Premier League champions are expected to be active during this summer’s transfer window, with signing a replacement for the departing Kevin De Bruyne set to be a priority for the club.
Other senior players will also move on, leaving Guardiola with a rebuild job, but the Spaniard has explained the importance of not having such a large first-team squad.
The 54-year-old said after Tuesday’s 3-1 victory over Bournemouth in the Premier League that he will “quit” unless the club agree to reduce the amount of players in the first-team set-up.
Abdukodir Khusanov, Savinho, James McAtee, Claudio Echeverri and Rico Lewis all missed out on the squad against Bournemouth, with the club’s injury situation now easing after a difficult period.
Guardiola urges Man City to reduce the size of his squad
“I said to the club I don’t want that [a bigger squad],” Guardiola told reporters. “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 [tell] my players in the tribune that they cannot play.
“Now it happened to add players immediately. Maybe for three or 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.”
“If I have injuries, unlucky, we have some players for the academy and we do it. [We] cannot sustain for the emotion of the club, the soul of the team, [to] create another connection with each other that this season we lost it a bit.”
Man City move closer to Champions League qualification
Man City need only a point from their last match of the Premier League season against Fulham on Sunday to secure a top-five finish in the table and a spot in the 2025-26 Champions League.
Tuesday’s success over Bournemouth has left them third in the division, two points ahead of sixth-placed Aston Villa.
De Bruyne made his final appearance for Man City at the Etihad Stadium in the clash with the Cherries, and it was revealed after the match that the Belgium international’s achievements at the club would be honoured by a special statue.
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