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Pep Guardiola, the Manchester City manager, has threatened to quit the club if the squad size isn’t reduced in the summer since he feels unhappy to drop players. The 54-year-old stated that it is impossible for his soul to leave out some of his players from the matchday squad, which was the case during his team’s 3-1 win over Bournemouth at the Etihad Stadium in the Premier League.
Notably, Omar Marmoush, Bernando Silva, and Nico Gonzalez scored the three goals for Manchester City, while Mateo Kovacic got the red card shortly before Lewis Cook got one of his own for Bournemouth in the second half. The visitors scored a consolation goal in the second half through Daniel Jebbison, but it was far from enough to pose any challenge on the night against former Premier League champions.
I said to the club I don't want a bigger squad: Pep Guardiola
Although Manchester City walked away victorious against Bournemouth, strengthening their chances to qualify for the UEFA Champions League (UCL) next season, they didn’t have players like Abdukodir Khusanov, Claudio Echeverri, Savinho, James McAtee, and Rico Lewis in the 20-man matchday squad. It led to Pep Guardiola saying, as per BBC Sport, “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, I will stay.”
“It's impossible for my soul to [tell] my players in the tribune [stands] that they cannot play,” he added. The Spaniard also talked about it being difficult for him to continually leave out certain players from his matchday squad, and remarked, “Maybe [for] three, four months we couldn't select 11 players, we didn't have defenders, it was so difficult. After, 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, 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,” Guardiola concluded.
