Pep Guardiola - 2024/25

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There was rumours of fernandinho joining peps coaching staff not too long ago, anyone know anything about that ?
 
Pep: "I said to the club, 'I don't want that!' I don't want to put five, six players in the tribune, I don't want that. I will quit. If they don't make a short squad, I will not stay."It's impossible for my soul to put players in the tribune and cannot play. Now it happened because we added four players... Three or four months we could not select 11 players; we didn't have defenders, so difficult. After people came back and next season it cannot be like that."As a manager, I cannot be training 24 players and when I select there has to be four, five, six staying in Manchester at home because they can't play. This isn't going to happen. I said to the club I don't want that..."
Holy shit this is serious, he says a lot of stuff. A lot. Some that don’t make sense and he never really means like when he wanted more subs but never actually used them. This is different.

This is extremely bad. For many reasons.
1. Threatening the club
2. Acting bigger than the club by putting his needs above the club
3. We obviously do need a bigger squad, there are more games every season and less breaks.

The club has to make a decision.
1. Adhere to his demands and basically give him full control of the squad and keep doing what we’ve been doing in terms of squad planning
2. Tell him the City and Pep story has ended and find his successor willing to play by the clubs rules
3. Somehow find a compromise. He can get his smaller squad but all his favourites will be replaced. Basically giving him an amazing XI and whosever left on the bench. So Grealish, Bernardo, Gundo, Stones etc all go but they replace them with quality.

Idk would love to hear peoples opinions about this ?

The only part where I can understand his point is that he feels wrong telling players to stay home and hates benching players and seeing them sad. Must be tired of explaining why Bernardo plays every game but X player can’t get mins.


This is some scary stuff. It’s not looking good imo. Maybe we ignore his comments and say that’s just Pep being Pep. But that would be unwise
 
Pep seemingly does his best work with a smaller squad. It's true you run the risk of being barely able to field a team if you have an injury crisis, but I'd rather take that chance and let Pep manage a squad in the way he likes and has brought him huge amounts of success. You can't exactly argue against his track record.

He obviously things he has more chance of succeeding with a smaller squad and it'd better to gamble on a shortage of players than be certain of a bigger squad being less harmonious and less chance of success.

Let him manage how he wants.

The only thing I'd worry about is there's so many games now, it seems to be increasing all the time. I don't know if having a smaller squad today is as manageable as in the past. He's actually said this before and wanted more players, so it seems he can't make his mind up.

But if you're lucky enough to have his manager at you're club, you should let him manage in the way he feels is the best way of continuing his proven success.
 
I think he wants the usual 18-20 strong 1st team players which will include 4 or 5 signings. Which means I expect a trimming of the current squad.

I think the old lads and injury prone lads could be on the chopping block.
But it still doesn’t make sense tho…
So Khusonov, Reis etc all go. The youngsters leave ?
His favs stay ? Maybe Grealish Stones Kev Walker go but everyone else stays ?
We play 50+ games a season
You’re running these players into the ground maybe not now but in a few seasons
Rodri played 4.5k mins last season club and country
It’s not just about us, these guys play for their nations.
Bernardo at 29 is practically finished bar. We don’t know how many seasons Rodri has left ? Look at Dias does he look like himself in his debut season ?
Guys like Saka are the perfect example if you keep using players like a bar of soap until there’s nothing left.
To play every 3 days at this level ? Fighting on all fronts it doesn’t make sense. Everyone knows there are more ACLs and muscle injuries than ever before. You’re not safeguarding yourself at all. It’s so short sighted it seems too bizarre to be true
 
Pep seemingly does his best work with a smaller squad. It's true you run the risk of being barely able to field a team if you have an injury crisis, but I'd rather take that chance and let Pep manage a squad in the way he likes and has brought him huge amounts of success. You can't exactly argue against his track record.

He obviously things he has more chance of succeeding with a smaller squad and it'd better to gamble on a shortage of players than be certain of a bigger squad being less harmonious and less chance of success.

Let him manage how he wants.

The only thing I'd worry about is there's so many games now, it seems to be increasing all the time. I don't know if having a smaller squad today is as manageable as in the past. He's actually said this before and wanted more players, so it seems he can't make his mind up.

But if you're lucky enough to have his manager at your club, you should let him manage in the way he feels is the best way of continuing his proven success.
Our season was done inside 3 months because of this very same philosophy. The consequences caught up with us. he literally said during that run that it’s better to have a bigger squad then said he doesn’t want a bigger squad he just wants his players back. He’s confusing but also consistent when it comes to squad numbers. Either way it’s a howler of a comment
 
Holy shit this is serious, he says a lot of stuff. A lot. Some that don’t make sense and he never really means like when he wanted more subs but never actually used them. This is different.

This is extremely bad. For many reasons.
1. Threatening the club
2. Acting bigger than the club by putting his needs above the club
3. We obviously do need a bigger squad, there are more games every season and less breaks.

The club has to make a decision.
1. Adhere to his demands and basically give him full control of the squad and keep doing what we’ve been doing in terms of squad planning
2. Tell him the City and Pep story has ended and find his successor willing to play by the clubs rules
3. Somehow find a compromise. He can get his smaller squad but all his favourites will be replaced. Basically giving him an amazing XI and whosever left on the bench. So Grealish, Bernardo, Gundo, Stones etc all go but they replace them with quality.

Idk would love to hear peoples opinions about this ?

The only part where I can understand his point is that he feels wrong telling players to stay home and hates benching players and seeing them sad. Must be tired of explaining why Bernardo plays every game but X player can’t get mins.


This is some scary stuff. It’s not looking good imo. Maybe we ignore his comments and say that’s just Pep being Pep. But that would be unwise
Think you're reading too much into it tbqh. He's always said stuff like this. He likes the club because they let him coach with total control and they get on running the club. If he wants a small squad then he'll have a small squad. If the club wants to sack him based on one poor season then they're idiots.
 
But it still doesn’t make sense tho…
So Khusonov, Reis etc all go. The youngsters leave ?
His favs stay ? Maybe Grealish Stones Kev Walker go but everyone else stays ?
We play 50+ games a season
You’re running these players into the ground maybe not now but in a few seasons
Rodri played 4.5k mins last season club and country
It’s not just about us, these guys play for their nations.
Bernardo at 29 is practically finished bar. We don’t know how many seasons Rodri has left ? Look at Dias does he look like himself in his debut season ?
Guys like Saka are the perfect example if you keep using players like a bar of soap until there’s nothing left.
To play every 3 days at this level ? Fighting on all fronts it doesn’t make sense. Everyone knows there are more ACLs and muscle injuries than ever before. You’re not safeguarding yourself at all. It’s so short sighted it seems too bizarre to be true

20 1st team players is fine as long as they stay fit, which is why he'll trim the odd injury prone player and a few of the oldies.

I'm not including players like Carson, technically Khusanov could come into it too, players it's easier to leave at home. Academy players come into that too.

Barcelona had 19 players over 1000mins this season, 8 players over 3000mins.
Real Madrid had 19 players over 1000mins this season, 9 players over 3000mins.
Arsenal had 20 players over 1000mins this season, 9 players over 3000mins.
Liverpool had 18 players over 1000mins this season, 10 players over 3000mins.
PSG had 19 players over 1000mins this season, 10 players over 3000mins. Shorter league season.
Bayern had 19 players over 1000mins this season, 5 players over 3000mins. Shorter league season.
Leverkusen had 18 players over 1000mins this season, 8 players over 3000mins. Shorter league season.
Inter had 19 players over 1000mins this season, 7 players over 3000mins.

City had 21 players over 1000mins this season, 7 players over 3000mins.

So Pep is right on the squad size, it needs trimming before bringing more quality in. 18-20 solid reliable players. If the injury prone stick around then they can't be counted in that 18-20 and have to be content with being left aside to protect them.

The issue is also the 11 that played the most minutes this season:
--------------Ederson
Lewis---Dias---Akanji---Gvardiol
-------Gundogan---Kovacic
Bernardo-----Foden-----Savinho
-------------Haaland

I've put Bernardo and Foden that way around because they've probably played like that more often than not.
I think if we'd have seen that pre-season, Stones, Walker, Rodri, De Bruyne and potentially Grealish/Doku not in the 11 with the most minutes, we'd have all said we're not winning the title. Then add in the players we would have expected like Foden, having absolutely shockers and it just compiles the misery.
 
Think you're reading too much into it tbqh. He's always said stuff like this. He likes the club because they let him coach with total control and they get on running the club. If he wants a small squad then he'll have a small squad. If the club wants to sack him based on one poor season then they're idiots.
Fine but the club has to be ruthless then. No more rotation players. No more injury prone players. No more mediocre players. You can’t have passengers in a small squad.
 
We need to get rid of Stones, Ake, Gundogan, Grealish alongside Kev to make this work, can only see Grealish leaving so I don’t really understand what’s going to happen
 
Txiki kept around imo to manage potential friction between summer plans on transfers and also help the unusually high outgoings.

Viana should have his own plans how to improve the squad and plan ahead something we completely fucked up since treble. these plans tho might not match up to Pep's ideas. the close relation between Txiki and Pep are based on friendship but Viana will be under more pressure as he isnt buddy buddy with Soriano or Khaldoon or Pep. he is the new guy coming into a huge job and everybody looking at him to deliver. I expect Liverpool and Arsenal (who also have a new DoF) get some serious business done this summer, we need to get this summer right.
 
Thats the problem we have. Vianna is a "project player" guy. Pep is not. This is not Sporting , where u only have to be better than Benfica to win the league.. this is the big dogs. We are not Brighton taking on "punt" signings. We need top quality if we want to compete, or accept going backwards while we see if these project players echeverri reis khusanov wesley are good enough.. but pep is not a manager who will be disrespected by being given unproven potential to try and win things it will end in us not competing. So If him and Viana arent aligned. I could see how he would walk
 
He should keep his thoughts to himself until we are out of this mess of his own making. If as some suggested he prioritised last night instead of the cup final then that's a disgrace. He had enough players to win both.

In my opinion he did pick teams to win both. The teams he put out should have won both.

We missed great chances on Saturday and were let down by a shocking VAR decision.
 
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