Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola has threatened to quit the club if they don’t reduce the size of the squad following a 3-1 win over Bournemouth on Tuesday.
Guardiola left out the likes of Abdukodir Khusanov, Savinho, James McAtee, Claudio Echeverri, and Rico Lewis from the 20-player matchday squad for the encounter.
The Spanish manager is unhappy that he has to leave many players out in the stands, expressing his desire to have a smaller group of players.
Guardiola said: “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 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.”
Guardiola’s statement means Man City will have to trim down the size of their squad ahead of next season, and the club is expected to undergo major changes with the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, and many others expected to depart in the summer.
Man City spent heavily in the January transfer window following their poor run of form in that period, bringing in the likes of Claudio Echeverri, Abdukodir Khusanov, Vitor Reis, Omar Marmoush, and Nico Gonzalez.
Guardiola continued: “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.”
When asked if it meant more exits were inevitable, Guardiola said: “It is a question for the club. I don’t want to have 24, 25, 26 players when everyone is fit. If I have injuries, unlucky, we have some players for the academy and we do it.”
Meanwhile, Manchester City recorded a 3-1 win over Bournemouth on Tuesday to boost their chances of qualifying for the Champions League next season.
The victory moved them up to third on 68 points two ahead of sixth-placed Chelsea with one game to go.
