Yaya Toure has become the latest high-profile victim of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City revolution.
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Guardiola oversaw Toure’s switch to Man City as Barcelona manager, selling him for £24m in 2011.
“Every day was unbelievable, but they train and after I sit with my people, and myself I decide what is the best – so now because we won maybe I’m a little bit right, if we draw or lose maybe it’s a mistake, so I know how this is”.
“We saw City play Sunderland [in the Premier League on Saturday] and have all the information to play football well and achieve a positive result”, the Steaua coach told a pre-match media conference.
A “beautiful” tournament is the goal for Manchester City and Pep Guardiola going into their Champions League play-off.
One of his victims was Toure, who did not feature in the matchday squad, and has reportedly also not travelled to Bucharest for the Citizens’ Champions League qualifier on Tuesday.
Wilfried Bony, Eliaquim Mangala and Samir Nasri have also been left and out and look set to leave the club, while 21-year-old central defender, Denayer, is thought to be looking for a fresh loan spell away from the club.
The England worldwide was in the squad for Bucharest and Guardiola said that he could replace Willy Caballero in the first leg on Tuesday.
The Catalan added that City can not afford to take their Romanian opponents lightly if they are to secure a place in the group stages.
“It all depends on the quality of the players”.
“I have no doubts about that [the players reacting well]”, he said. I would like (fans) to go to the stadium and think “Wow, I like how they play”. It depends on our game.
I have one that I believe in a lot and I try every training session and every game to convince these guys that this is the best way to win the game.
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Jonathan is ESPN FC’s Manchester City correspondent.
