Pep Guardiola may have changed three clubs in his managerial career so far but the manager’s habit of axing some of the biggest players at his new clubs hasn’t gone away. Manchester City is the third club that the Spaniard is managing after having won loads of silverware at his previous two clubs: Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
The special feature, however, about the manager’s style of management is that he is never afraid of dropping some of the big players from his starting eleven and even the matchday squad. The manager is seeing another such story unfolding as he has been keeping the Manchester City number one goalkeeper Joe Hart on the bench.
We look at five of the biggest stars that Pep Guardiola has axed from his side so far:
#5 Bastian Schweinsteiger
Bastian Schweinsteiger has recently retired from the German national team as an international football legend. He had built this legendary status for himself at his boyhood club Bayern Munich, which led him to captain his national team as well. But when Guardiola came to the Allianz Arena from Camp Nou, it placed Schweinsteiger’s position in the starting eleven in doubt.
The Bayern skipper had, in fact, won the German Player of the Year award in 2013 after having a sensational 2012/13 season with the club where they won the treble. But as Pep Guardiola came to Bayern in the next season, Schweinsteiger’s role at the club and in the first team was reduced.
Guardiola had brought a favourite of his in Thiago Alcantara from Barcelona along with him to Bayern and played the Spaniard ahead of the experienced German.
This trend continued for Bastian for two seasons and at the end of the 2014/15 season, he was finally informed by Guardiola that he will be free to leave the club in the transfer window. The Bayern Munich legend made 500 appearances for his side but his career at the club was brought to an abrupt end by Guardiola.
Schweinsteiger was eventually sold to Manchester United in 2015 where he is again facing the same problem under new manager Jose Mourinho.
One wonders how much more disrespect can the German legend tolerate.
#4 Yaya Toure
Yaya Toure had joined Barcelona at the start of the 2007/08 season from AS Monaco for a fee of around €10 million. The Ivory Coast international had a great first season at the club under then manager Frank Rijkaard.
But as soon as Pep Guardiola took over the reigns of Barcelona in 2008, changes began to happen at the Catalan club as most of the experienced players were offloaded by the Spanish manager.
However, Yaya Toure was not sold in Pep’s first season in charge which meant he had included the Ivorian in his plans. But as the 2008/09 season started, Guardiola favoured youngster Sergio Busquets in the defensive midfielder role, which saw Toure resigned to the bench.
It was the start of the end of Toure’s career at Barcelona. The midfielder did stay at the club for one more season but Busquets was favoured by Guardiola.
Toure decided that he was done sitting on the bench and went to Manchester City as soon as the 2019/10 season ended. The Ivorian managed to score four goals for the club after making 74 appearances for the first team in his 3 years at Catalonia. The duo have since been reunited at Manchester City and it is reported that the Spaniard is again willing to offload Toure.
#3 Ronaldinho
Ronaldinho had joined Barcelona in 2003 for about €30 million following two impressive seasons at Paris Saint-Germain. The two-time FIFA Player of the Year then spent five seasons with the Catalans where he took them back to the top by winning the UEFA Champions League in a stunning fashion.
But as Pep Guardiola joined the club at the start of 2008/09 season, Ronaldinho faced a lengthy spell on the sidelines as he was prone to injuries.
In his first few interviews as the manager, Guardiola made it obvious that he would eventually off-load several first-team players who did not fit into his plans and style-of-play at Camp Nou and one of these players was the Brazilian.
The charismatic Ronaldinho was forced out of the club in the summer transfer window in 2008 when he was sold to AC Milan after Barcelona’s club president Joan Laporta had said that the Brazilian needed a “new challenge” to revive his career.
Ronaldinho turned out to be the first of many players who were sold by Guardiola as the likes of Deco, Zambrotta, Giovani dos Santos and Samuel Eto’o also left the club.
#2 Joe Hart
Pep Guardiola had taken over the reigns at Manchester City at the start of this season and it has been reported that many players have been told to look for new clubs by the manager. Yaya Toure, Elaquim Mangala, and Samir Nasri are some of the players who have been told that they do not feature in the Spaniard’s plans.
But the most notable name among these players has been that of goalkeeper Joe Hart. The England international has been on the bench for City’s first two Premier League fixtures as well as the Champions League qualifiers.
The new manager has not been playing Joe Hart as the number one goalkeeper and has instead favoured Willy Caballero in the starting eleven. Reports in the media have also suggested that Guardiola is looking to sell Joe Hart altogether as he is trying to buy Barcelona’s number one Claudio Bravo. However, the manager has also said that he wants Joe Hart to stay at the club and fight for a spot in the starting eleven.
The 45-year old has come out and said that he would want the England international to stay so that he can make him a better player. But the manager’s interest in the Chilean suggests that that is not the actual case.
It will be interesting to see for how long Joe Hart is willing to spend his time on the bench before finally deciding on leaving.
#1 Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Zlatan Ibrahimovic may be enjoying his time at his new club Manchester United but the Swedish striker has had his share of a bad phase under Pep Guardiola at Barcelona.
The 34-year old was bought by the Catalans in the year 2009 from Inter Milan after the Italian club wanted Barca's striker Eto’o, who had scored 36 goals in the treble-winning 2008/09 season for Barcelona.
The deal meant that Barcelona had paid a large sum of money and Eto’o to secure the services of Zlatan. However, it was reported that Guardiola was never in support of the acquisition of the striker by Barcelona’s ex-president. The manager did not like his new striker’s attitude and it was known that the duo did not have an eye to eye relationship at the Nou Camp.
Guardiola would keep the Swedish striker on the bench for most of the season and would play him as a substitute in the entire season. But the striker did not disappoint even as a substitute as he managed to score 22 goals from 46 appearances.
Guardiola was quick to offload the striker to AC Milan on a season-long loan as soon as the season concluded which eventually materialized into a permanent transfer.
