Pep Guardiola claimed that as a Manchester City boss he could stop if he gets too large a team next season, because he cannot tolerate it to leave a large number of fit players away.
City goes into the summer for an aging team, with various senior players candidates to follow Kevin De Bruyne the door after the Belgian played his last city game in Tuesday’s 3-1 victory over Bournemouth.
After a season in which injuries have hit the city hard and the pressure of the luminaire schedule only continues to grow, getting the right balance of numbers looks difficult, but Guardiola – who has always preferred the use of a smaller group – said that keeping things tight remained a priority for him.
“I told the club that I don’t want that (a larger team),” said Guardiola. “I don’t want to leave five or six players in the freezer. I don’t want that. I will stop. Make a shorter team, I will stay.
“It is impossible for my soul to (tell) my players in the stands that they cannot play.
“Now added to add players immediately. Maybe we could not select 11 players for three or four months, we had no defenders, it was so difficult. Then people came back, but next season it can’t be.
“As a manager I can’t train 24 players and every time I select, I have to stay at home in Manchester for four, five, six, because they can’t play. This is not going to happen. I told the club that I don’t want that.”
Despite the injury problems this season-in particular the long-term disability of Rodri, who has made his first appearance since September as a replacement for the second half on Tuesday evening-Zei Guardiola that he would rather come up with the figures with Academy players.
His statement means that City has to crop numbers before they bring new faces into the next transfer window.
“If I have injuries, bad luck, we have some players in front of the academy and we do it,” he said.
“(We) cannot maintain for the emotion of the club, the soul of the team, to create a different connection with each other that we have lost this a bit this season.”
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City had to win on Tuesday to keep their hope in qualifying in their own hands for the Champions League, and a draw in Fulham on Sunday should now be enough to be sure.
Omar Marmoush opened the score with an excellent strike and although De Bruyne missed an open goal, Bernardo Silva doubled the lead for the break.
After City’s Mateo Kovacic and Lewis Cook van Bournemouth quickly saw red in succession, Nico Gonzalez received a late third for the city before the stop-time consolation goal of Daniel Jebbison.
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