Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has been putting on rigorous training sessions.
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On Thursday, City beat Borussia Dortmund 6-5 in a penalty shootout in Shenzhen after drawing 1-1, Sergio Aguero’s 76th-minute goal being cancelled out by Christian Pulisic’s last-minute equaliser.
“Sane is a player from Schalke”.
“If he comes we’ll be happy, if he stays in Schalke I will be happy for the fans and for the Schalke club”, Guardiola explained, as quoted by ESPN.
It was widely reported that the Citizens were planning to sign the 22-year-old and could well have to pay up to £50m for the England global.
When asked about rumours of a move for the Everton centre-back, Guardiola sounded like a broken record, saying “It’s the same answer for Sane – he’s a player for Everton. We are disappointed by what happened – we need to play games”, he said.
Aleksandr Kolarov has moved from left-back to play in the centre of defence alongside Argentina worldwide Nicolas Otamendi and academy product Tosin Adarabioyo in City’s two preseason friendlies.
Apparently, he did not make the cut – further raising doubts about his future at City – despite Guardiola’s blasé responses masking what looks like a non-blasé approach to running his football side. For me that is important… We need to run, to fight, to jump – to have the ball.
The Frenchman told several national newspapers: “If your weight is too high, you’re not training with the team”.
“They were not overweight (at the start of pre-season), but I want my players fit”.
“Normally I’m not a guy to say “you can’t eat that”, I don’t know what they eat normally. They are not fast enough, quick in the head enough and that’s why I want my players to be absolutely fit”.
“So we have a few players who are not training with the team yet. We’re going to kill our players”, he said. “I know we’re going to play not with the level I want in February, March and April but it is what it is”.
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He revealed that the club were making a frantic push to line up an English Championship or non-league club for a friendly next week to replace the lost Beijing game.
