Frenchman reveals Guardiola’s quote upon arrival at City: “A team full of fat players” | english football

Henry’s current assistant on the France under-21 team, former full-back Gaël Clichy revealed that his career was marked by the way Pep Guardiola spoke to the Manchester City players upon his arrival at the club in 2016. The Frenchman indicated that the The Spaniard’s sincerity surprised the athletes with strong phrases.

– I already know that I’ve been coming here for a year and I’ve been watching you. They are a team full of fat players – Guardiola reportedly said, according to Clichy.

The Spanish coach arrived at the Manchester club after three seasons at Bayern Munich. Last year in Germany, Guardiola indicated he would not stay, and City got in touch. With that, Pep began to observe his future teammates. The memory was told on the podcast “The Coaches Voice”, in which Clichy also said that Guardiola was very concerned about the athletes’ weight.

– He had the two-kilo rule. If you weighed two kilos more than what he considered your maximum weight, you didn’t train. I saw players who didn’t train for two weeks – said Clichy.

That season, Guardiola did not win titles in charge of City – a trajectory that would change significantly in the following years, with five trophies in the English Championship and one in the Champions League. So much so that, at the end of his first year in England, the coach promoted a major overhaul of City’s squad. Clichy was one of the athletes dismissed.