I was in Pep Guardiola's first Man City meeting and this is what he said

Pep Guardiola embraces Manchester City defender Gael Clichy
Pep Guardiola embraces Manchester City defender Gael Clichy -Credit:Shaun Botterill/Getty Images


Former Manchester City defender Gael Clichy has revealed Pep Guardiola went on a savage rant about the squad's weight upon his first meeting with the players.

Guardiola moved to the Etihad Stadium in July 2016, having built a reputation as one of the best managers in the world. At Barcelona and Bayern Munich, the Catalonian manager won numerous trophies, including two Champions Leagues and three FIFA Club World Cups, as well as several league titles in Spain and Germany.

On his arrival in England, Guardiola wasted little time telling his new squad some devastating home truths. The Frenchman recalled the City boss saying on the ZACK YouTube channel: "I’ve known that I’ve been coming here for a year now and I’ve been watching you, you’re a team full of fat players.

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"I want my players like this (stick thin). I'm going to organise a working weight for each of you. It's not you that's going to decide that working weight. It's me that will decide at the end of five weeks of pre-season.

Clichy then added: "More than two kilos (overweight), you turn [do laps of the pitch]. We came back from pre-season. Two players were overweight.

"I'm not talking about players from the academy. Two senior players are overweight. For ten days he's making them do laps of the pitch."

This approach from Guardiola is not surprising considering he publicly called Kalvin Phillips overweight after he returned from the Qatar World Cup. In February 2023, Guardiola apologised: "Yeah, I’m sorry.

"Once in eight years is not bad. But I'm so sorry. I apologise to him. I do apologise. I'm sorry.

"I never, never before I said something here [in the media] did not speak with the players in that case." On Sunday, Guardiola managed his 300th Premier League game as the Blues beat Nottingham Forest 2-0 at the City Ground.