Pep Guardiola has threatened to quit Manchester City over squad size – and now faces a Club World Cup selection dilemma over players such as Jack Grealish with uncertain futures.
Guardiola has confirmed talks with Grealish after the Premier League campaign ends this weekend, which could result in the England international looking for a new club. But Manchester City also have a month of the summer in the United States at Fifa’s expanded club tournament.
Other players will return from loans, including Kyle Walker and Kalvin Phillips, with their futures unclear. Players ideally want their futures settled so they can start pre-season with a club – but City will be in the US for the key period when deals are thrashed out.
Guardiola is adamant he wants to work with his usual tight squad of players and would “quit” if the club brought in extra numbers to cover for injuries or to replace those who remain at the club.
The City manager had to leave James McAtee and Rico Lewis out of his matchday squad for the FA Cup final last weekend and says he would rather walk away from his job than tell a handful of players they are not involved each weekend.
“I said to the club I don’t want that [a bigger squad]. I don’t want to leave five or six players in the freezer. I don’t want that. I will quit,” he said. “Make a shorter squad [and] I will stay. It’s impossible for my soul to [consign] players [to] the stands [and tell them] that [they] cannot play.
“Three or four months ago we couldn’t select 11 players, we didn’t have defenders it was so difficult. Afterwards people came 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 or six [of them] 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.”
McAtee, 22, has attracted interest from Bundesliga and Premier League clubs after finding first-team opportunities limited at City. Grealish, meanwhile, was an unused sub against Crystal Palace at Wembley, with Guardiola opting to use debutant Claudio Echeverri, 19, instead.
Grealish was also an unused sub in the win over Bournemouth on Tuesday evening, with Oscar Bobb back from injury and adding to the competition for places.
“I don’t want to have 24, 25, 26 players when everyone is fit,” Guardiola added. “If I have injuries, unlucky, we have some players from the academy and we [will use them]. We lost the connection with each other a bit this season and we need to create [it again for the good of] the emotion of the club, the soul of the team.
“Every week [some] players stay at home. You are a journalist, imagine your editor saying you are not going to write an article. You [would] say: ‘What am I doing here?’ Players have to be here to fight between them to play and it has to be the right number.”
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