Tag: Pep Guardiola

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said Monday he was uncertain when Spain midfielder Rodri will be fit enough to return to action.

Rodri missed much of last season with a knee injury and has appeared just once — and then only for a minute — in City’s last 10 games due to a hamstring problem.

The 29-year-old has been ruled out of Tuesday’s Premier League trip to Fulham and is doubtful for the home clash with Sunderland on Saturday.

“No, not yet,” said Guardiola, when asked at a press conference on Monday that lasted just a few minutes, if Rodri was available.

Asked if he could feature at the weekend, Guardiola said: “I don’t know.”

Guardiola also spoke about goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, who was booked for a fourth time in his short City career in the last-gasp 3-2 win over Leeds on Saturday.

Leeds manager Daniel Farke also accused Donnarumma of feigning injury to allow Guardiola to deliver a key team talk. The Italian is now just one yellow card away from a suspension.

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“Yes, he has a lot (of bookings), he has many,” said Guardiola. “It is what it is.”

Asked if he had spoken to Donnarumma about it, he said: “No.”

Guardiola was more willing to discuss the work of Fulham manager Marco Silva after their impressive 2-1 win away to Tottenham.

“Marco is many, many years there and always (when we) have been there — really, really tough games, difficult,” said Guardiola.

“The organisation is exceptional and every year I have the feeling that with the ball, they are better and better. Tough, tough opponent.

“I saw the games yesterday and today, against Chelsea, against Arsenal, last games against Sunderland.

“Always it’s so, so difficult for the opponents to break them up. It has always been like that in this beautiful stadium (Craven Cottage) in London.”

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Pep Guardiola accused his much-changed Manchester City team of “playing safe” in their surprise Champions League loss to Bayer Leverkusen in midweek.

The City manager paid the price for making 10 changes to his starting line-up as the German side won 2-0 at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday.

Guardiola felt his players were too risk-averse as they slipped to a second successive defeat following last week’s Premier League reverse at Newcastle.

Referring to the Leverkusen defeat, he said: “We didn’t try. In football, when you play on the green, you have to try things, and we didn’t try.”

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He added: “I think they played not to make mistakes, not to play to do something, that is so difficult. In football, you have to play offense, and you have to try… they played to be safe.”

Pep Guardiola, whose team faces struggling Leeds on Saturday, suggested the players who started against Leverkusen had lacked confidence.

“I have a lot of confidence in them, still right now I have a lot,” he said. “I have a huge value in what they are as football players, and that maybe is higher than (they have) themselves.”

City are still without midfielder Rodri for the Leeds game, but Guardiola said the Spanish international would be back soon.

Guardiola’s men are third in the Premier League table, seven points behind leaders Arsenal.

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Pep Guardiola said he was “embarrassed and ashamed” of his behaviour after confronting a cameraman following Manchester City’s damaging 2-1 loss at Newcastle on Saturday.

The City manager reacted angrily after he was filmed close up following the final whistle, when he was involved in discussions with Newcastle player Bruno Guimaraes and match officials.

Pep Guardiola had been angered by the decision to award what proved to be Newcastle’s winning goal in the 70th minute at St James’ Park, with City believing goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma had been fouled.

The City boss, speaking Monday at a press conference on the eve of his team’s Champions League match against Bayer Leverkusen, said he had apologised for his behaviour.

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“I feel embarrassed and ashamed when I see it,” he said. “I don’t like it. I apologised to the cameraman after one second.

“I am who I am. Even after 1,000 games I’m not a perfect person. I made a huge mistake…. The reason why is I want to defend my team and my club.”

City’s fourth Premier League defeat of the season left them third in the table, seven points behind leaders Arsenal.

But Guardiola said the Newcastle reverse was “immediately forgotten” as he turned his attention to the Champions League.

City are fourth in the 36-team league phase after a strong start to their European campaign.

Midfielders Rodri and Mateo Kovacic are unavailable for Tuesday’s match against Leverkusen.

Guardiola said he did not have a timescale for Rodri’s return but it would not be long before he was back in action.

“We will wait a little more to be sure he is fine,” he said.

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Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola said his side can ill afford a repeat of the “under-14s” defending that saw them thrashed 5-1 by Arsenal in February.

Guardiola’s men travel to the Emirates again on Sunday, already trailing the Gunners and defending champions Liverpool in the Premier League title race.

Man City lost two of their opening three games to Tottenham and Brighton., However, they have bounced back with comprehensive victories over Manchester United and in the Champions League over Napoli.

Erling Haaland starred in Man City vs Napoli clash as he scored his 50th goal in the Champions League.

The thrashing at the hands of his former protege, Mikel Arteta, was one of the low points in a miserable campaign for Guardiola.

City failed to win a trophy for the first time since 2017 and finished a distant third behind Liverpool and Arsenal.

“The game last season, we started like many times last season, like an under-14s team and gave away a thousand million goals,” said Guardiola when asked to reflect on his last visit to the Emirates.

“After we were, a lot of the time, pretty good considering how it was last season, but the last 15-20 minutes were a disaster.

“We forgot to do what we had to do, and it was easy for Arsenal. I want to compete to be a better team than we were last season.”

Both Liverpool and Arsenal massively outspent City in the transfer window in the battle for Premier League supremacy, and Guardiola took the opportunity for a dig at those who claim his six titles since arriving in England are due to the budget at his disposal.

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“The only thing I want to say to my friend Mikel Arteta is if he wins the title, it will be just because he spent money, not because he worked hard or because of his players,” Guardiola said sarcastically.

“It’s like Liverpool, too. If Arne (Slot) wins it again, it will be because he spent a lot of money, right? Because it’s not just Man City that (spend), right?”

Arteta left behind working as Guardiola’s assistant in 2019 and has slowly built Arsenal back into a force capable of competing for major trophies.

But he has still just won one piece of silverware, the 2020 FA Cup, after finishing second in the Premier League for the past three seasons.

“He found the club in a (certain) way and step-by-step, window by window, Arsenal is getting better,” added Guardiola.

“Last season in Europe, they made an incredible step forward, and they are, for me, the most solid team. They don’t make mistakes in the back.”

City begins the weekend three points behind Arsenal and six adrift of leaders Liverpool.

The challenge facing Guardiola’s side is heightened by the fact that they played their Champions League opener 48 hours after Arsenal, who won 2-0 at Athletic Bilbao on Tuesday.

Guardiola refused to be drawn into the scheduling debate but conceded it could be difficult for Ballon d’Or winner Rodri to start three games in eight days on his return from a major knee injury.

“With him in the pitch we feel more comfortable but, of course, after coming from a tough injury you have to be alert and we will decide on Sunday how he does feel.”

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Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has opened up about his retirement plans, revealing that he intends to step away from managerial duties after leaving the club.

However, the 54-year-old, who signed a contract extension in November last year, which will now last until 2027, remarked that the decision could take up to 15 years.

His role came under scrutiny after Manchester City’s challenging season. For the first time since Guardiola took the position in 2016, the club finished without any trophies.
hyless

Meanwhile, Pep Guardiola has made similar statements in the past about his retirement.

“I don’t know. The truth is, I don’t know, but I don’t think I’m… I don’t know, because you can also have large work groups that help you with certain things,” he said.

“I know that after this spell with City I’m going to stop, that’s for sure, it’s decided, more than agreed,” he added.

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Pep Guardiola further mentioned the challenges he face on daily basis as Manchester City manager, noting that no other profession comes under so much scrutiny.

“I’ve spent four or five months this year in every away stadium with the crowd chanting, ‘You’ll be sacked in the morning. They’re going to fire you’,” Guardiola said.

“There’s no other profession, architect, teacher, doctor, journalist… where 60,000 people ask you to lose your job.

“When you win six Premier Leagues, there comes a time when you go down. It’s human nature … it’s a process that had to happen, it happens, it took longer to happen, and when it did, it went deeper than we could have imagined,” Pep Guardiola concluded.

For the unversed, the Spaniard is the most successful manager in the Club’s history, having won 18 trophies, including six Premier League titles and the Champions League.

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Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said the war in Gaza “hurts my whole body” as he delivered an emotional speech while being honoured by the University of Manchester.

Pep Guardiola, 54, was speaking as he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Manchester on Monday.

“It’s so painful what we see in Gaza, it hurts my whole body,” Pep Guardiola said in excerpts of his speech shared on social media.

“Let me be clear, it’s not about ideology. It’s not about whether I’m right, or you’re wrong. It’s just about the love of life, about the care of your neighbour.”

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza after the attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 54,981 people, the majority civilians, have been killed in the territory since the start of the war. The UN considers these figures reliable.

“Maybe we think that we see the boys and girls of four years old being killed by the bomb or being killed at the hospital because it’s not a hospital anymore, it’s not our business,” Pep Guardiola.

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“Yes, fine, we can think about that, it’s not our business. But be careful. The next one will be ours. The next four or five-year-old kids will be ours.

“Sorry, but I see my kids, Maria, Marius and Valentina when I see every morning, since the nightmare started, the infants in Gaza, and I’m so scared.”

Guardiola has not shied away from voicing political views in the past, throwing his weight behind the campaign for Catalan independence.

He was awarded the honorary degree by the University of Manchester for his unprecedented success at City, where he has won six Premier League titles, as well as his work through his family foundation, the Guardiola Sala Foundation.

The organsisation takes part in “established projects which strive to support the most disadvantaged”.

Apart from Pep Guardiola Others within football have spoken out on Gaza.

In October 2023, Liverpool and Egypt forward Mohamed Salah called on “world leaders to come together to “prevent further slaughter of innocent souls”.

The following month Bundesliga club Mainz sacked Dutch winger Anwar El Ghazi, now at Cardiff, over social media posts related to the conflict.

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Pep Guardiola has said he could quit his position as Manchester City manager if he is given too large a squad next season, as he can no longer bear to leave out large numbers of fit players from his team.

City will head into the post-season looking to rebuild an ageing squad, with several senior players expected to follow Kevin De Bruyne out of the Etihad after the Belgian played his final home game for the club in Tuesday’s 3-1 win over Bournemouth.

This season has seen City’s unprecedented run of four successive top-flight English titles come to an end, while their defeat by Crystal Palace in last weekend’s FA Cup final meant they will finish without a major trophy for the first time in eight years.

Injuries have hit Manchester City hard this season, but Pep Guardiola, always in favour of a smaller group of players, insisted: “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. Make a shorter squad, and I will stay.

“It’s impossible for my soul to (tell) my players in the tribune that they cannot play.”

The Spaniard added: “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.

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“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.”

Despite the injury problems suffered this season — notably the lengthy absence of Rodri, who made his first appearance since September as a second-half substitute on Tuesday — Guardiola said he would rather bolster his squad with academy players.

“If I have injuries, unlucky, we have some players for the academy, and we do it,” he said.

Manchester City needed to win on Tuesday to keep their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League in their own hands, and a draw at Fulham on Sunday should now be enough to make sure of a place among European football’s elite.

Omar Marmoush opened the scoring with a fine strike, and although De Bruyne missed an open goal, Bernardo Silva doubled the lead before half-time.

After City’s Mateo Kovacic and Bournemouth’s Lewis Cook saw red in quick succession, Nico Gonzalez got a late third for City before Daniel Jebbison’s stoppage-time consolation goal.

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Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola will make a decision on the future of Jack Grealish at the end of the season.

Grealish has fallen out of favour with Guardiola since his starring role in City’s 2023 treble-winning campaign.

The 29-year-old has made just seven Premier League starts this term and was left on the bench as City crashed to a shock 1-0 defeat in Saturday’s FA Cup final against Crystal Palace.

That snub has fuelled speculation that the England winger could leave the Etihad Stadium during the summer transfer window.

Guardiola said discussions will take place between outgoing director of football Txiki Begiristain, his successor Hugo Viana and Grealish’s representatives before deciding if he will still be with City next season.

“We didn’t talk, I didn’t talk with him,” Guardiola told reporters on Monday.

“People don’t believe me but these things belong to the agents and the club and Txiki, and in this case Hugo as well. Both will decide.

“What is going to happen will happen, but he has to come back to start to play minutes again.”

Pep Guardiola accepts that former Aston Villa star Jack Grealish, who has two years remaining on his contract, will not be happy about his lack of action.

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“It’s not only Jack. There is not one player in my locker room, and I think all the locker rooms around the world, that is happy when they do not play,” he said.

“When the team is winning and winning they have to figure out how everything happens but they are not happy.

“They are here to play and, when they don’t play, they are not satisfied. That is the normal position in all the clubs.”

One player definitely leaving is Kevin De Bruyne, who is set to make his final home appearance for the club in Tuesday’s Premier League clash with Bournemouth.

The 33-year-old midfielder is out of contract in June and will depart after a glorious decade at the Etihad in which he has won 16 trophies.

Despite the Belgian’s claim he is still good enough to play in the Premier League, Guardiola believes the time is right to move on after injuries and poor form reduced his effectiveness over the last two years.

“There are players who are really difficult to replace, really, really difficult for many reasons,” he said.

“We know that but the season we have done is the season we have done and we cannot deny it. Of course we have to move forward.”

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Pep Guardiola admits this season has been the toughest of his 16-year managerial career as Manchester City’s Premier League title challenge collapsed and they exited the Champions League early.

The Spaniard has experienced little but success in glittering spells at Barcelona, Bayern Munich and City. But after four successive Premier League triumphs, City’s form nosedived from late October onwards.

They can still finish the campaign with a top-five spot and the FA Cup, while they have an additional shot at silverware at the Club World Cup.

But even if they end on a high note, it will not change Guardiola’s verdict on the season as a whole.

“It’s been the most difficult, that’s for sure,” said the 54-year-old, whose team exited the Champions League at the hands of Real Madrid in the knockout phase playoffs.

“It’s been more demanding — much more. When you don’t win, it’s more demanding emotionally and (in terms of) preparing and the moods and everything.

“It’s been more difficult than the previous seasons when we played for the titles.”

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Injuries, particularly to midfielder Rodri, have been a huge factor in City’s decline while a number of individuals have suffered a drop in form.

Pep Guardiola does not absolve himself from blame.

“We had a lot of injuries, we didn’t have the energy,” he said. “We tried most of the time, but we were not able to do it.

“I didn’t find the way to let them feel comfortable and win the games.”

Guardiola, whose third-placed side travel to relegated Southampton on Saturday, admitted City’s high standards had slipped.

“But, even with that, I would say, it could be worse. I was not good enough to find a way, but we didn’t give up,” he said.

“We’re still fighting to qualify for the Champions League — that is a big, big prize — and the FA Cup.”

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Pakistan pacer Mohammad Abbas has shared an interesting story from his time at Hampshire, revealing how Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was denied a hotel room.

Abbas, who had been playing for Hampshire County Cricket Club, was released last winter after impressive performances over four seasons. During those seasons, he took 180 wickets at an outstanding average of 19.26.

The 35-year-old is currently playing for Nottinghamshire in the ongoing County Cricket Championship.

In an interview with a British news outlet, Mohammad Abbas revealed the story of the Manchester Manager requesting his room.

“I didn’t know about it at the time, but our head coach told me the next morning that he had wanted my room,” Abbas said.

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“The Hilton emailed the Hampshire management to ask if it was possible, but they were told no, I would be spending six months there. So that was what happened,” he added.

The right-arm pacer also shed light on Hampshire’s decision to release him, emphasizing that the club’s new Indian owners did not have an issue with a Pakistani cricketer.

“No, that’s not why. James Vince had stopped playing four-day cricket, and they said they needed a batter for an overseas player; so a bit of a restructure.

“We had good communication around it, and they are good people. Still, they are messaging me, and I am messaging them. They are fantastic, he explained.”

For the unversed, Mohammad Abbas made his debut for Pakistan in 2017. He has played 27 Test matches until now, claiming 100 wickets at an impressive average of 23.18.

Abbas was recalled to the Pakistan team after a three-year gap during the tour of South Africa last December; however, three weeks later, he was not included in the home series against the West Indies.

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