Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
I’D HAVE HAD GUARDIOLA A DECADE AGO
OXFORD coach Derek Fazackerley says he would have taken Pep Guardiola to Manchester City 11 years earlier if it had been up to him.
Fazackerley, No.2 at Oxford, was on City’s coaching staff under Stuart Pearce when a veteran Guardiola came on trial in 2005. Fazackerley, preparing for a reunion with his old club and Guardiola tonight in the EFL Cup, said: “Pep came to train at City when I was at the club and stayed for maybe 10 days.
“He was looking to try to get a season in the Premier League. “Stuart Pearce was the manager and, for one reason or another, we didn’t take him on. It wasn’t my decision, but would I have taken him on given his pedigree and experience? I’d have to say absolutely.” Guardiola is planning to ring the changes at the
Kassam Stadium for the start of City’s Carabao Cup defence but won’t exactly be going easy on the League One strugglers.
He said: “Some players are going to play because they need rhythm. They haven’t played too much in the last month so we’re going to play a lot of players who haven’t played.
“The first priority is the Premier League. Teams like Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Juventus – in 10 years they won seven leagues and have shown me they are the best teams.
“We want to be consistent and solid in that competition and we want to improve on the mistakes we made in the past in knock-out games – we’re going to try to go for it.”