5 players who have had problems with Pep Guardiola
Pep Guardiola is one of the best and most successful managers in the history of football. The Spaniard has managed Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City and has broken numerous records in all three leagues. Players worldwide are keen to play under Pep Guardiola as they believe he can bring out the best in them.
However, a few players haven't had pleasant experiences with the manager. Here are 5 such players who had an issue with Pep Guardiola:
#5 - Dante (under Pep Guardiola at Bayern Munich)
Dante had formed a formidable central defensive partnership with Jerome Boateng at Bayern Munich when Pep Guardiola arrived in 2013. The defensive partnership had just won the Champions League, and the Spaniard decided on continuing with it.
Dante enjoyed two successful seasons under Pep Guardiola but despite performing his best, the Brazilian was sold in the 2015 summer transfer window. Following the transfer to Wolfsburg, the defender revealed he was not a fan of Pep Guardiola as he was not a 'good human being.' He said:
"He doesn't speak with you. As a player you don't know what situation you're in. There are coaches that from a tactical point of view are world class but on a human level they're not so good. That is the case with Guardiola."
#4 - Yaya Toure
The Yaya Toure vs Pep Guardiola feud began in 2008 and is yet to come to an end. The player and the manager have never seen eye-to-eye.
Barcelona signed Yaya Toure in 2007, and he hit the ground running at Camp Nou. He was a regular in the starting XI, but things slowly changed after Pep Guardiola took over.
Despite playing 50+ games under Pep Guardiola, Yaya Toure reportedly had issues behind the scenes with the manager. He was eventually sold in 2010, and he went on to accuse the manager of being a racist. He said:
"When you realise that [Guardiola] has often had problems with Africans wherever he has been, I ask myself questions. The day he fields a team with five Africans, non-naturalised, I promise that I will send him a cake!"
He later backtracked on those comments and told The Athletic:
"When something happens that is wrong and you make a mistake, or people use your name and use you to do some wrong stuff, you have to make it OK. This one was wrong. I want to apologise for what happened, I want to apologise for doing something wrong.
"We decided to communicate with some important people at the club to apologise [for Guardiola comments] and say I've been indecent to the club. Since then, it has been a very, very long while waiting for an answer, but we don't get it."
Yaya Toure is reportedly yet to hear from Pep Guardiola.