Pep Guardiola vows to walk away from Man City unless one condition is met

The Spaniard has been left upset at being forced to omit several players from his squad altogether, with Savinho, Abdukodir Khusanov, Claudio Echeverri, Rico Lewis and James McAtee all left out of Tuesday’s squad against Bournemouth

Pep Guardiola has claimed he will quit Manchester City if they have such a big squad next season.

Guardiola is urging his bosses at the Etihad Stadium to get rid of some players so he has fewer at his disposal next year and he said – albeit in a threat he is unlikely to carry out – that he would resign if he had such a large group again.

The City manager had to tell Savinho, Abdukodir Khusanov, Claudio Echeverri, Rico Lewis and James McAtee they were not even on the bench for Tuesday’s 3-1 win over Bournemouth, just as the two locals were omitted from the matchday 20 for the FA Cup final.

Guardiola made four signings in the winter window, after injuries led him to conclude that he had too few players but now he believes he has too many and, while Kevin de Bruyne is guaranteed to leave, the others are all contracted to City next season – leading the manager to say he wants some to go.

“I said to the club I don't want that [a bigger squad],” he explained. “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 and I will stay. It's impossible for my soul to give my players [a place] in the tribune that they cannot play. Now it happened to add players immediately.

“Maybe for three-to-four months we couldn't select 11 players, we didn't have defenders and 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 or six staying in Manchester at home because they cannot play. This is not going to happen. I said to the club that I don't want that.”

Pep Guardiola says he could not bear to leave ‘five or six players in the freezer’ (PA Wire)

Guardiola added that he could not “sustain for the emotion of the club” to have a squad of that size as he felt the team needed to “create another connection with each other” in a smaller group, supplemented by academy players.

He said: “It is a question for the club. I don’t want to have 24, 25, 26 players when everyone is fit. It is a headache. Yesterday I spent more than 45 minutes with six players. Not one or two, six players were at home. I don’t like that.”