Pep Guardiola Wants A Smaller Squad Or Resigns From Manchester City

JAKARTA - Pep Guardiola said he would rather leave Manchester City than have to work with a squad that swells next season.

The Citizens manager began rebuilding his team after the club's first season without a trophy since 2017.

However, on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, he has told the club that he will leave rather than keep an eye on the squad that is too big.

"I told the club that I didn't want that. I don't want to leave five or six players in the stands."

"I don't want that. I will stop. For the smaller squad, I will survive."

"It's impossible for my soul to let my players in the stands because they can't play," said Guardiola.

Guardiola left James McAtee, Savinho, and Rico Lewis of his squad for the Premier League match against Bournemouth on Wednesday, May 21, 2025.

He had to make the same tough decisions for last weekend's FA Cup final defeat against Crystal Palace.

He has traditionally enjoyed working with smaller squads, but a series of injuries this season - including Rodri - severely hampered Manchester City's efforts to defend the title, which failed ahead of Christmas.

Manchester City then spent more than 200 million US dollars on the January 2025 exchange to try to save the season by signing Omar Marmoush, Nico Gonzalez, Abdokodir Khusanov, and Vitor Reis.

Guardiola is expected to make a major signing out of the season, with Kevin De Bruyne leaving as a free agent and Kyle Walker also likely to leave. However, he has explained that he wants to keep his squad low.

"I don't want to have 24, 25, 26 players while everyone is fit. If I get injured, I'm unlucky."

"We have several players for the academy and we did it. We can't maintain the club's emotions, the team's soul, creating relationships with each other that are a little missing this season," said the Spaniard.