Pep Guardiola has established himself as one of the greatest soccer coaches of all time recently. Guardiola led Manchester City to its first Champions League title last month. He also won the treble, a feat he had already accomplished at FC Barcelona. However, despite his greatness, former Manchester City forward Gabriel Jesus has expressed his disappointment with the City coach.
Gabriel Jesus left Manchester City last year to join Arsenal after signing a long-term contract with the Gunners. Despite winning four Premier League titles at Manchester City, the Brazilian star decided to leave the club he had joined back in 2017. However, in his recent appearance on the Denilson Show podcast, Jesus came clean about his decision to leave Guardiola’s side.
🎙️ Gabriel Jesus on his relationship with Pep Guardiola:
“There was a game he [Guardiola] put Zinchenko false-nine. Champions League, PSG at home. Crazy. The day before, he didn’t even put Zinchenko there in training, he put me at striker. Then the other day, Zinchenko even… pic.twitter.com/jFpztVNwoF
— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) July 6, 2023
He said, “There was a Champions League game, PSG, at home, in which he put Zinchenko as a false 9. Crazy thing. The day before, he didn’t even use him [Zinchenko] in training, he had put me in as a striker… Zinchenko even joked with me: ‘That day I felt bad for you.’ Two hours before the game, there’s a team talk, the team eats, rests for 30 minutes, and goes to the game. He told us the team… I didn’t even eat.“
“I went straight to the room, crying, I called my mother to talk: ‘I want to leave.’ I’m going home, because he put him [Zinchenko] on, and he didn’t put me on. He put a left-back there. I went crazy. That’s when I decided, I didn’t want to stay anymore. And I decided to leave.” Although Jesus was an important player in Guardiola’s team, Manchester City duly replaced him with Erling Haaland.
Pep Guardiola had previously benched Manchester City legend Sergio Aguero
Gabriel Jesus isn’t the only Manchester City player who got annoyed with Pep Guardiola’s tactics. The former FC Barcelona coach has had the reputation of often clashing with his players. Former FC Barcelona and Manchester City star Yaya Touré had even accused Guardiola of being racist. However, the veteran coach had even clashed with Manchester City legend Sergio Aguero.
Sergio Aguero is Manchester City’s all-time top scorer with 260 goals in 389 matches. He spent a decade at the club, winning five Premier League titles, six Carabao Cups, and so on. Aguero scored one of the most iconic goals in Manchester City’s history in the dying seconds against QPR to clinch the Premier League title back in the 2011-12 season.
Although Aguero was an integral part of the team under Guardiola, he didn’t make regular appearances during his final few years at the club. The reason for that was Aguero often failed to meet Guardiola’s non-negotiable standards of fitness. He said, “Well the first season we were between fourth and third and he said, ‘I left you out because you turned up fat this week’. And what was I going to say? He was right… these things happen.“
🗣 “We cannot replace him.” 😢💔
💙 Pep Guardiola after Sergio Aguero played his final game for Man City pic.twitter.com/LoKM9wMJAR
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) December 15, 2021
Despite his differences with Guardiola, Aguero only had good things to say about the former Bayern Munich boss. He said, “I never had problems with Guardiola. I never argued with him.” Moreover, Pep Guardiola also paid a heartfelt tribute to the Argentine striker when Aguero left Manchester City for FC Barcelona back in 2021.