Pep Guardiola Set to Sell Star Player to Saudi Arabia after having issues with player in Training
Manchester City decided to sell one player in the most recent transfer window after he placed demands on Pep Guardiola that the manager simply refused to commit to.
Pep Guardiola has regularly made clear to his players that he will allow them to leave Manchester City if they no longer want to be at the club, the Spaniard only wanting people who are fully committed to his project regardless of their status within the team.
That stance certainly didn’t change in the summer, either. Ilkay Gundogan and Riyadh Mahrez both left after wanting a different challenge following their tremendous treble win, but the demands of another player ultimately led to their departure too.
According to TEAMtalk, Manchester City decided to sell Cole Palmer due to the player’s desire for more regular first-team football, which Pep Guardiola wasn’t willing to agree to.
The report suggests that Palmer met with Guardiola during pre-season to try and ascertain how much football he would expect to play in the 2023/24 campaign.
Having made 40 appearances in three seasons since making the step up to senior football, the 21-year-old wanted to become a more regular member of the starting XI and believed the departure of Mahrez opened that door for him.
However, Guardiola reportedly couldn’t promise an exact amount of minutes to Palmer over the course of the campaign, highlighting that he needed to look elsewhere for guaranteed minutes.
Therefore, when Chelsea offered £40m plus £2.5m in add-ons for Palmer, it is believed the winger reiterated his desire to the club to move on in search of more regular opportunities. While Guardiola didn’t want to lose the promising talent, he also didn’t want to step in the way of a player who harboured ambitions for something he couldn’t commit to as the Manchester City manager.
Fortunately for Guardiola, though, the club signed Jeremy Doku for £55m from Rennes in the summer transfer window, meaning Manchester City aren’t completely short of options at right-wing. Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva are also capable of slotting in there.
