Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola responded to questions that had arisen about Jack Grealish after the former Aston Villa captain was dropped for the encounter against Newcastle at the weekend as the erstwhile gaffer took things up a notch to remind his Manchester City players of their responsibilities.
£100million transfer player or not, former Aston Villa captain Grealish was promptly dropped like a hot potato by Guardiola for Sunday’s match against Newcastle United. Grealish and Phil Foden were benched at St James’ Park and Guardiola insisted his changes had nothing at all to do with his usual rotation policy, but rather the ‘behavior of certain players’ within his squad.
Although the Spanish coach refrained from naming the perpetrators, reports have suggested it was England duo Grealish and Foden that the Spaniard was making references to. When quizzed again on the pair at his latest press conference the City boss said: “Fernandinho, Nathan Ake, Cole Palmer didn’t play either at Newcastle. Some players go out to dinner. I will clarify but not to you.”
Guardiola – long known to be a stickler for discipline – has repeatedly been asking his players to caution restraint in their social activities outside of City’s training ground to ensure the Premier League leaders are not carelessly exposed to any Covid-19 outbreaks. That said, he has insisted that his players haven’t been issued any strict rules to adhere to.
“They are not rules, I’m not police,” he said. “They are old enough and experienced enough to know what they have to do. We are living in special circumstances that we cannot live free like in the past.
“The pandemic situation is still here. Everyone has to try to follow us as much as possible. We are not alone in the world, we are living with people. We are exposed. Just be careful that’s all. We spoke about that from a long time ago.”