MANCHESTER, England — Pep Guardiola said he would rather leave Manchester City than have to work with a bloated squad next season.
The City manager has begun to rebuild his team after the club’s first trophyless campaign since 2017.
But he said Tuesday he had told the club that he will walk away rather than oversee an oversized squad.
“I said to the club I don’t want that. I don’t want to leave five or six players in the tribune,” Guardiola said after the 3-1 win against Bournemouth. “I don’t want that. I will quit. Make a shorter squad, I will stay. It’s impossible for my soul to give [leave] my players in the tribune, that they cannot play.”
Guardiola left James McAtee, Savinho and Rico Lewis out of his squad for Tuesday’s Premier League game. He had to make similarly tough calls for Saturday’s FA Cup final loss against Crystal Palace.
He has traditionally liked to work with a smaller squad, but a spate of injuries this season — including knee surgery for Rodri — severely hampered City’s title defense, which unraveled by Christmas.
City spent more than $200 million in January to try to salvage the campaign, brining in Omar Marmoush, Nico Gonzalez, Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis.
Guardiola is expected to make major signings in the offseason, with Kevin De Bruyne leaving as a free agent and Kyle Walker also likely to go, but has made it clear he wants to keep his squad numbers down.
“I don’t want to have 24, 25, 26 players when everyone is fit,” he said. “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, create another connection with each other that this season we lost it a bit.”
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