Josep Guardiolamanager of Manchester City, in an interview given to Sky Sports UK he focused at length on the too-packed calendar which led to a decidedly complicated season for the CitizensIn Turin in the defeat against Juventus we had four players from the youth sector, so we can see the reality. In the next game it will be the same and in the last month it has been like this. You can survive for a few games but we have been doing it for more than a month with players with a lot of minutes in their legs. It’s not because they don’t want it, it’s because of the calendar, the schedule. We’re going to play the Club World Cup in Orlando next summer and then we have to start the Premier League three weeks later. It’s impossible.”
Is football becoming unsustainable with this calendar? Yes, for Guardiola: “Of course yes, but the show must go on and will continue. When Rodri doesn’t play, another player comes in. The Premier League defends its business, I defend mine. My business is my players. My success is the my players and I want to protect them. These players did something that no other team in this country has done and they would have done it again if it wasn’t for the schedule.”
Guardiola expressed himself as follows on his position: “The owners know that when the situation is bad and we start losing games, then it’s not sustainable. So I wouldn’t be here next month or in the next two months if we didn’t have to change gear. The results say it, and that’s the reality We can’t lose games forever. Maybe because of what we’ve done in the past people think I’ll never be sacked, but we’re judged every day like all the other coaches.”