Pep wants 'shorter City squad'

PEP Guardiola has said he could quit his position as Manchester City manager if he is given too large a squad next season, as he can no longer bear to leave out large numbers of fit players from his team.

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City will head into the post-season looking to rebuild an ageing squad, with several senior players expected to follow Kevin de Bruyne out of the Etihad after the Belgian played his final home game for the club in Tuesday's 3-1 win over Bournemouth.

This season has seen City's unprecedented run of four successive top-flight English titles come to an end, while their defeat by Crystal Palace in last weekend's FA Cup final meant they will finish without a major trophy for the first time in eight years. Injuries have hit City hard this season, but Guardiola, always in favour of a smaller group of players, insisted: “I said to the club I don’t want that (a bigger squad).

“I don’t want to leave five or six players in the freezer. I don’t want that. I will quit. Make a shorter squad, I will stay.

“It’s impossible for my soul to (tell) my players in the tribune that they cannot play.”

The Spaniard added: “Now it happened to add players immediately. Maybe for three or four months we couldn't select 11 players, we didn’t have defenders... it was so difficult.