Guardiola: I will not be managing Neymar soon
CITY boss Pep Guardiola doesn’t see himself managing Neymar any time soon.
The Brazil star got Blues fans excited last month when he reiterated his desire to play under the the Catalan boss.
“I’ve always wanted to work with Guardiola,” Neymar told ESPN Brazil in May. “He’s different.
“I arrived in Barcelona a year after he left. I really want to work with him.”
However, it doesn’t sound like Neymar’s wish will come true this summer judging by Guardiola’s comments.
“I’m not going to go to Paris Saint-Germain and he will not go to Manchester,” Guardiola said, speaking at a golf tournament in Catalonia.
“Will Neymar go to Madrid? I’ve seen the rumours but I don’t know, I don’t know.
“What I know is that leaving Paris is not easy because PSG are PSG. But in football, we know that anything is possible.”
Guardiola also offered his opinion on Zinedine Zidane’s Real Madrid resignation after the Frenchman announced he was stepping down last week.
There have been comparisons made between the two managers given Guardiola also resigned from his first job in management when he quit Barcelona in 2012.
“We didn’t win three Champions Leagues when I left,” Guardiola added. “I would have to speak with him to know why he left and, if he explained his reasoning, I’m sure I would understand. I am no one to judge.
“What he’s done at Madrid is worthy of praise. But the wear and tear doesn’t just affect coaches, it also affects the presidents, too, and they have no patience, and the players as well. There are so many games, it’s very demanding for everyone.” OH Yaya Toure, you probably shouldn’t speak any more.
Less than a month after leaving City as a hero, the Ivorian gambled on his status with the Blues faithful with his most direct and brutal verbal attack yet on Pep Guardiola.
For those who washed their hands after Cake-gate, it was yet another example of a man ‘so classy on the pitch but so classless off it,’ as Paul Lake alluded to.
But for the many supporters of the club who recognise his achievements as a player outweigh his diatribes off it, the latest outburst felt particularly bitter.
Toure is entitled to any opinion of Guardiola he likes in his own home, and undoubtedly feels hurt about his final year at City.
Of his two exiles while at the club, last summer was more perplexing than the year before.
In 2016, the City boss could have legitimately claimed he was looking to the future, but having brought Toure back into the fold and given him a new contract, the second culling appeared to come out of the blue.
His legs may have gone by January, but they do at that age when you don’t play regularly, whereas if he wasn’t initially part of Pep’s plans it was an odd to decision to start him in three of the four pre-season games.
However, and it’s a big however, even if there is more to tell of his 2017 freefall from favour, there is simply no excuse for publicly airing the nonsense that came out on Monday.
Ranting about Guardiola helps push the theory that Toure still has a lot to offer as a player - and it seemed telling that his agent has already lowered wage demands as he looks to find him another club but the claims simply don’t stack up.
Mehdi Benatia, Kelechi Iheanacho and Riyad Mahrez easily discredit the most serious of Toure’s claims in the same way that Joe Hart and Zlatan Ibrahimovic do. As for ruining his Blues farewell, it certainly looked like the 35-year-old was given the stage as he started against Brighton before being brought off to a standing ovation before a post-game presentation celebrating his career. If things have always been so bad, why did Toure sign a new deal in the first place? There has been no official response from the club – and nor are there plans to raze the mosaic in the player’s honour at the training ground. His words were received at the Etihad with a familiar disappointment, especially given how needless the latest claims seem. Given Toure is already more loved at the club than Guardiola, punching down from above is hardly going to enhance that status. What the powerhouse midfielder did for the club in his heyday will never be forgotten, but every time he opens his mouth he risks diluting the warmth he is remembered with across the fanbase.