Pep Guardiola planned to stick ‘a firework up the backsides’ of Manchester City players after turning Manchester United and Chelsea down
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PEP GUARDIOLA planned to stick “a firework up the backsides” of the Manchester City players he inherited.
The new Etihad boss came in with a blueprint based on five key men — Sergio Aguero, Kevin De Bruyne, Fernandinho, David Silva and Raheem Sterling.
But Guardiola was approached directly by both Chelsea and Manchester United before choosing City, according to a newly-released book.
The updated version of Pep Guardiola by Spanish journalist Guillem Balague suggests Roman Abramovich was prepared to bend over backwards to get his long-time managerial target.
SunSport reported last year that Chelsea owner Abramovich was willing to offer “whatever it took” to persuade Guardiola to sign.
And those reports are confirmed in the book, which says he suggested bringing in City director of football Txiki Begiristain and CEO Ferran Soriano to seal the deal. But Guardiola is said to have feared the Russian “seemed less interested” in Chelsea than before.
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United also wanted Guardiola, speaking to him long before contact was made with Jose Mourinho.
But the Catalan, who imagined himself in the job “on a number of occasions”, felt the scale of the rebuilding job was “daunting”.