Pep Guardiola fires warnings to BOTH Sergio Aguero and Raheem Sterling as he prepares to shake Man City up
Etihad chief tells the Argentine striker NOT to consider himself the club's top striker - and says England ace Sterling must stop feeling sorry for himself
PEP GUARDIOLA has laid down the law to BOTH Sergio Aguero and Raheem Sterling.
Argentine striker Aguero has been told he should NOT consider himself Manchester City’s No 1 striker.
Manager Guardiola also talked tough love to winger Sterling, telling him to stop feeling sorry for himself.
Guardiola is ready to leave Aguero out for the lunchtime Liverpool clash while Sterling is banned.
Aguero has five goals in five home Prem games against the Merseysiders but Guardiola said: “I said many times, he’s going to play a lot of games, sometimes he’s not going to play.
“In my case he’s going to play like last season — a lot, a lot of games. He played, when fit, maybe 90 per cent of the games, especially in the important games, he was always there.
“So maybe one day we decide we’ll only play with one striker, sometimes with Gabriel Jesus, sometimes with two, sometimes with neither.”
Had Gunners boss Arsene Wenger had his way, Sterling would have gone to the Emirates in part-exchange for Alexis Sanchez.
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While Guardiola says that there was “zero per cent chance” of that, he noted the winger was upset getting subbed then left on the bench by England during the international break.
Pep said: “Arsenal wanted to make a swap with Raz. I said, ‘No chance. Zero chance.’ I have a lot of trust in Raz. Players have to learn that not everyone is going to play.
“So that’s happened with Raz in the national team, here it will happen in the rest of the season for all the players, especially in my team.”
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One player who Guardiola cannot select is injury-prone skipper Vincent Kompany, who got injured for Belgium.
The City boss failed to land West Brom centre-back Jonny Evans as back up and said: “Jonny Evans was an idea. But Tony Pulis put a price that we couldn’t afford at that moment.”
- The summer transfer window was one of the craziest ever. Take a look at the most profitable transfers of ALL time.
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