Pep explains why he’s putting faith in young blood
PEP Guardiola has explained City’s transfer strategy this summer.
The Blues have spent big with more than £200m put into bringing in new acquisitions at the Etihad. Their spending has attracted plenty of comment in a window where many teams are breaking transfer records.
The new strength in depth City have was on show against West Ham in their final friendly match before the Premier League starts.
Fernandinho, Kyle Walker, Bernardo Silva, and Raheem Sterling all came off the bench for the Blues , while Ilkay Gundogan and Benjamin Mendy will also be in contention when fit.
As well as the quality on show, City are also significantly younger. The average age of the squad has been culled by three years this summer – from 28 to 25 – in what has been a deliberate tactic.
“We have a lot of players with a lot of quality - even with [Phil] Foden, [Patrick] Roberts, [Aleks] Zinchenko – that’s why I’m so grateful what the club has done,” said Guardiola.
“With all respect to the players last season, we were one of the oldest teams in the premier league.
“We didn’t buy full-backs for five, six years.
“We decided last season we could change the team to make the team younger for the next four or five years – Danilo is 26, Mendy is 23, Bernardo is 22, Ederson is 23 – so we bought players who are helping you to be stable for the next years.
“The players that have experience like Vinny [Kompany], Nico [Otamendi], Sergio [Aguero], Kevin [De Bruyne] are going to help us to introduce these new guys and try to fight every game like we fought in these last three games. That is our target.”
Guardiola has been delighted with the impact his new signings have made in such a short space of time.
The manager spoke glowingly last season about Spurs and their core English talent, and being able to bring Walker to the Etihad is significant to the manager’s plans.
After just four games in pre season, Guardiola has seen signs that buying in quality can help the team hit the ground running as the Premier League fast approaches.
“Kyle knows the Premier League and knows some of the guys quite well - John [Stones] and Raheem [Sterling],” Guardiola said.
“Always I thought the top players adapt quicker.
“Sometimes when you come from another country you can need a little more time but since he was here he knew absolutely everything.
“He has desire – not just Kyle but everyone – Ederson was a great impact on the team as a goalkeeper and the other guys too, the young players too – all of them they played well.”