Pep Guardiola has rarely got any of his transfer dealings wrong at Manchester City, with most players signed by the Premier League champions enjoying a stellar stint at the Etihad Stadium. But occasionally, when those players leave for pastures new, they speak about some of the troubles they’ve had with the Catalan coach.
Guardiola is heralded as one of the greatest coaches of all time, and the ex-Barcelona man lived up to that claim last season when he delivered City’s first-ever Champions League trophy. Alongside being crowned champions of Europe, their continental triumph was also part of a historic treble for City, who became only the second-ever club to achieve such a feat, behind bitter rivals Manchester United.
The former Barcelona midfielder doesn’t always get things spot on though, with some ex-City players having revealed their exit from the club left a sour taste in their mouth. As a result, Express Sport have taken a look at four City players who endured a frosty exit from the Etihad Stadium.
Aymeric Laporte
A member of the City side that waltzed to the treble last season, Aymeric Laporte was shipped out to Saudi Arabia during the summer transfer window, joining Al Nassr for £23.5million. However, the Spaniard recently told Marca that he’d become ‘frustrated’ under Guardiola at City.
“I also made that decision [to leave], I think it was the right one, due to life circumstances and also because of my situation at City. I had been playing there for a long time, I had achieved almost everything and I had been playing for two years in a place that was not the position that I did not want to play.
Before later adding: “When a year, two years goes by and you do not play in the ideal place for you, it is a little frustrating because you do not show the best of yourself.”
Raheem Sterling
An integral part of Guardiola’s winning machine at City for so long, Raheem Sterling’s exit for Premier League rivals Chelsea in the 2022 summer transfer window came as somewhat of a surprise at the time. Playing just shy of 300 matches under Guardiola, Sterling left City unceremoniously and is another star who believes he wasn’t treated fairly.
“Everyone wants to feel wanted, football is no different,” Sterling said upon his arrival at Stamford Bridge. “When you play your heart out, sacrifice some of your kids’ birthdays, and then get treated in a certain way, it’s disappointing. At the time I was fuming, raging, but it’s gone, it’s in the past and I can only focus on the present.”
Joao Cancelo
Joao Cancelo is technically still a City player, but given the way he’s spoken about Guardiola and the club in recent months, it would be a tall order for the Portuguese fullback to wriggle his way back into the side. Currently on loan at Barcelona, Cancelo had initially been shipped out of the Etihad Stadium mid-season to Bayern Munich last year, before agreeing on a move to the La Liga giants during the off-season.
But in a scathing interview with Portuguese publication A Bola, Cancelo said: “Lies were told! I’ve never been a bad team-mate for them and you can ask either (Nathan) Ake or Rico (Lewis). I don’t have any superiority or inferiority complex towards them, but that’s the manager’s opinion. I stayed because it’s not true. I think Man City were a bit ungrateful to me when they said that, because I was a very important player in the years I was there.”
Angelino
Whereas Spanish left-back Angelino has previously lambasted Guardiola’s treatment of him, claiming his short spell under the City boss during the 2019/20 campaign ‘killed him’. The Manchester-based outfit had originally brought Angelino, a former academy product, back to the club during the 2019 summer transfer window, before sending him out on loan again in the following January.
“The confidence was everything, when you don’t have the trust of a coach it is everything,” Angelino claimed. “I was judged from two pre-season games and then I didn’t get my chance for a few months.”