Guardiola exiles the City fat cats
PEP GUARDIOLA has ‘exiled’ some of his Manchester City stars for piling on the pounds.
Gael Clichy has revealed that some of his team-mates have already been banished from training with the senior squad and put on conditioning programmes to shed the excess weight.
And Guardiola has banned sugary drinks, pizza and other high-fat foods to ensure his players remain fighting fit and injury-free in the coming season.
Clichy says the ex-Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss’s legendary eye for detail has been clear in his first three weeks in charge.
“On the field, off the field, every detail counts,” said the former Arsenal defender. “You often hear managers say being healthy is really important. But with him, if you’re weight is too high, you’re not training with the team.
“You hear it a lot but, for my part, it’s the first time any manager has really done it. So we have a few players who haven’t trained with the team yet.
“We play football and it’s a job and you have to take responsibility for what you do on the field. Of course, you have quality but you have to know if your weight is 60 kilos and you are on 70 kilos, you cannot play football because you’re going to get injured and get your team in trouble. That’s important.
“He has cut out some juice and, of course pizza, and all the heavy food is not allowed. It’s really refreshing and very exciting.
“It is not going to help us win the Premier League, the Champions League, FA Cup or the Capital One Cup, but you don’t have success without being focused on details.
“He’s been a player also which makes a big difference. He’s still young so understands how football is going with the new generation coming though.” Clichy believes Guardiola will have the same revolutionary impact Arsene Wenger has had at Arsenal.
“I’ve been lucky because I’ve trained only a few weeks with Guardiola and I was eight years with Wenger. There are a lot of similarities between the two but also so much difference,” he said. “In eight or nine years, Guardiola has won pretty much everything and changed the way we see football. He was probably one of the first to bring the fullbacks really high and to put a midfield player as a centreback. It’s a step forward. “Wenger, years ago, brought something back into English football from wherever he had been and changed the way people saw football.
“The two of them are great managers but you could say the same for Sir Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho. Every manager has their own philosophy and for sure he’s coming with his own ideas and it’s quite refreshing for us.”
Clichy admits City players subconsciously took their foot off the gas in the Premier League last season when City announced in February that Manuel Pellegrini would be leaving.
“It wasn’t deliberate but it’s normal,” he said. “For example, if you’re working in Manchester, it’s raining and in two weeks you’re going to Hawaii for a month on holiday or a honeymoon, you will think about it. Even if you know the present moment is important, you cannot just block this.
“Any manager who comes into a new club brings an energy. Instead of giving 100 per cent, you give 110 per cent just because it’s a new manager and you need to show yourself. And when you have someone like Guardiola, who has won so many trophies, then you have to adapt – and quick.”
City are closing in on deals for two more of Guardiola’s transfer targets, Schalke’s £41 million-rated winger Leroy Sane and Gabriel Jesus, the 19-year-old Brazilian striker dubbed ‘the new Neymar’, set to cost £26m from Palmeiras.
And they are still haggling with Everton over John Stones. The Merseyside club are insisting on £50m-plus – around £10m more than City want to pay for the England defender.