Pep Guardiola is a one of a kind manager. Everyone knows that. And yet, he never ceases to amaze fans. His latest pre-season antic is nothing short of hilarious.
It is not unusual for players to come back from vacation with a few extra pounds packed on, but Manchester City players got a little taste of how the Guardiola era at Etihad Stadium will be.
Guardiola brought down the hammer and banned all the players who showed up overweigh, from training with the first team.
Apparently, Guardiola told the players to cut out on “bad food” like pizza and chips.
"On the field, outside the field, every detail counts," City defender Gael Clichy said. "For example, you often hear managers say being healthy is really important. With him, if your 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 are not training with the team yet."
And yet, despite the hardships and shortage of fast food, Guardiola is already winning the locker room. According to Clichy, his attention to detail and focus on every position is something the players love.
"I think he's an ideal manager for any kind of player," Clichy said. "The goalkeeper needs to be better with their feet, the centre-backs are improving, the fullbacks are important.
"The centre midfield — he said something like 'if he could play 11 midfielders, he would play them' so I guess for a midfielder it's unbelievable.
"And the strikers are going to score a lot of goals because we are going to create a lot of chances.”
One of the players who fell prey to Guardiola’s pre-season strict regime was French midfielder Samir Nasri. Still, Guardiola was elegant in talking about Nasri’s form and how much he has improved since showing up with those extra pounds.
"He arrived a little bit overweight. He's much, much, much better now," Guardiola said in a news conference.
"He fought a lot in these weeks but he is still a little bit [over]weight. And last season he was overweight and he was injured all the season we want to avoid that, we want to adapt.
"The players that are on the pitch they are fit, their weight is in the right place to arrive at many minutes. But hopefully, in the next two weeks, he will be right with us."
