LONDON - Pep Guardiola claimed he could quit as Manchester City boss if he is given too big a squad next season, because he cannot bear to leave a large number of fit players out, German Press Agency (dpa) reported.
City will go into the summer looking to rebuild an ageing team, with several senior players candidates to follow Kevin De Bruyne out of the door after the Belgian played his final City home game in Tuesday’s 3-1 win over Bournemouth.
After a season with City hit hard by injuries and the pressure of the fixture schedule only continues to grow, getting the right balance of numbers looks a difficult one. But Guardiola - who has always preferred using a smaller group - said keeping things tight remained a priority for him.
"I said to the club I don’t want that (a bigger squad),” Guardiola said. "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.”
A notable long-term absence from the squad was Spanish international Rodri, who suffered an ACL injury September last year and finally came off the bench as a second-half substitute on Tuesday night.
Despite the injury problems suffered this season, Guardiola said he would rather make up the numbers with academy players.
His assertion means City will have to trim numbers before bringing in any new faces in the next transfer window.
"If I have injuries, unlucky, we have some players for the academy and we do it,” he said.
"(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.” - BERNAMA-dpa