Manchester City need reliable players and not ‘more’ players insists Pep Guardiola in transfer message | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola has sent a clear message of intent to Manchester City’s chief decision makers over the club’s strategy moving forward into the next campaign.

City are set to undergo a major squad overhaul come the end of a season that currently sees them in fifth place in the Premier League following early exits from the UEFA Champions League and Carabao Cup, with the FA Cup all to play for ahead of a quarter-final tie against Bournemouth in two weeks’ time.

Since their slump in the fall of 2024, Guardiola has maintained that City would have fared much better were it not for the long list of injuries that have derailed their season.

Speaking in a recent press conference on Manchester City’s upcoming campaign, Guardiola was quizzed on any firm plans in place to increase the overall size of his playing squad given the demands of football and the struggles witnessed this season.

“I would say you have to have reliable players. Of course you can be like what happened with Rodri (ACL injury in September), in actions – and with Oscar (Bobb). But the guys that can play (every) three days, that’s important. But it’s not sustainable economically, even for the day by day, for the manager, for the players,” Guardiola said.

The Manchester City manager was further quizzed on the challenges of potentially deploying a larger squad, having previously been known to prefer a smaller contingent of players throughout his managerial career.

“The question is if I know next season the central defenders, I will not have central defenders, of course we have to have more (in the) squad. But if we have central defenders, I don’t want more central defenders,” he added.

“I have the feeling right now, the same I’ve done – if we have one injury, two injuries – but the squad should have been there. Maybe we would be playing Champions League right now, maybe we’d be close to Liverpool and Arsenal (in the Premier League table). So, who knows?”

Guardiola doubled down on his preference of working with a small, resilient group of players than make wholesale changes to the squad in the summer.

The Catalan said: “We arrive(d) in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, where we play unbelievable against (Real) Madrid. We were present there. They (Real Madrid) didn’t shoot at the target in the second half (until) after 10, 15 minutes. So, we were good. And I rely on the players. I’m sorry, what is the problem?

“Because I rely on the players that give me or give us that clap a lot? But I start to make players maybe are not there, maybe are tired, maybe injuries. Okay, we should anticipate it – yes maybe.

“But who knows that?! Like next season, John (Stones) will be there, Nathan (Ake) will be fine, Manu (Akanji) will be fine, Rodri will recover perfectly, Oscar (Bobb) will be back – I don’t know! Do we buy three more holding midfielders, seven more central defenders?! It’s not about that. It’s just to be lucky, take the right decisions. Sometimes we don’t do that and pray.”