Pep Guardiola has turned Manchester City into one of European football's major forces since taking on the manager's job in summer 2016.
He's guided the Blues to a Premier League title and two League Cups, and the 2018-19 season sees them on course for an unprecedented Quadruple of all four major trophies.
But the job of constructing an all-conquering squad doesn't just involve bringing the best talent to the Etihad - it also means the players who are surplus to requirements moving out.
Here's what has happened to the 20 senior players to leave Manchester City since Guardiola took charge.
Martin Demichelis - The centre-back spent three seasons at the Etihad, winning the Premier League and two League Cups, before being released to join Espanyol. The Argentine made just one appearance for the La Liga side before moving on to previous club Malaga, where he spent six months before announcing his retirement in May 2017.
Edin Dzeko - The Bosnian made his loan move to Roma permanent when Pep Guardiola took over at the Etihad, and he went on to prove why he was so hotly-fancied when signing for City in 2011. He's scored more than 80 goals for the Serie A side and skippered them several times this season.
Stevan Jovetic - An underwhelming City career saw the Montenegro international shipped out to Inter Milan on loan the season before Guardiola's arrival, with the loan deal made permanent the following season. He failed to score for the Serie A side, and was soon sent on loan to Sevilla where he scored seven in his half-season stay. The La Liga outfit balked at the price quoted for his services with Monaco, his current club, forking out on Jovetic as a replacement for Kylian Mbappe last summer. He's spent most of this season on the sidelines having suffered three separate injuries.
Willy Caballero - The Argentine will forever be remembered in City folklore for his heroics in the 2016 League Cup final. Guardiola, though, wasn't so impressed and moved Caballero on to Chelsea, free of charge, where he has served as deputy to Thibaut Courtois and Kepa Arrizabalaga since.
Gael Clichy - The former France international moved to the Etihad from Arsenal in 2011 and spent six successful seasons at City, winning two Premier League titles and two League Cups. He was a victim of Guardiola's defensive cull at the end of his first season in charge, joining Istanbul Basaksehir, where he remains.
Jesus Navas - The 2010 World Cup winner, who suffered from homesickness, took some convincing to sign for City in 2013 but his four-year stay at the Etihad garnered a Premier League title and two League Cups for the speedster. He returned to Sevilla for free in 2017 and has since played on the right for the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan outfit, skippering them throughout this season.
Bacary Sagna - Sagna ended his seven-year association with Arsenal to sign for City in 2014 and the right-back spent three seasons at the Etihad before Guardiola deemed him surplus to requirements in 2017. A spell with Italian side Benevento Calcio followed, before the 65-time capped France international joined Montreal Impact in August 2018.
Pablo Zabaleta - Pablo Zabaleta saw it all at Manchester City after Mark Hughes signed him for £6m in 2008. It was an emotional goodbye nine years later when he left for West Ham, where he remains, as Guardiola parted with £100m to rejuvenate his options at full-back.
Nolito - An impressive showing for Spain during Euro 2016 earned the wide man a move to the Etihad for the modest fee, in today's terms, of £14m. His sole season at the Etihad was a frustrating one for him, though, with him struggling to nail down a regular staring berth. Guardiola flogged him to Sevilla the following summer on a three-year deal and he's still on the verges there.
Aleksandar Kolarov - A 2010 signing from Lazio, the Serb won a pair of Premier League and League Cup medals during his seven-year stay in Manchester. He failed to pass the test set out during Guardiola's first season at the Etihad, though, and was sold to Roma in 2017 where he has enjoyed success ever since.
Kelechi Iheanacho - The Blues prospect went mightily close to making the grade at the the Etihad but he didn't quite convince Guardiola of his worth. The arrival of Gabriel Jesus didn't help his cause, either. The Nigerian moved to Leicester for £25m, where he has struggled to find the net this season.
Fernando - The Brazilian spent three seasons at City after a £12m move from Porto in 2014. He was not the man Guardiola deemed capable of providing competition for Fernandinho at the base of City's midfield, though, and was sold to Galatasaray in the summer of 2017, where he has prospered since.
Samir Nasri - Imagine what Nasri could have achieved if Guardiola had taken over at the peak of his career? His vision and ability on the ball seem a perfect match, but Guardiola saw fit to send the former France international out on loan to Sevilla for the 2016/17 season, before a permanent move to Turkish side Antalyaspor followed the summer after. Nasri was handed an 18-month ban for contravening doping laws for a hydration therapy treatment which saw his contract with the Turkish outfit cancelled, though. He joined West Ham after his ban expired in January.
Wilfried Bony - Bony was hot property when City parted with £25m for his services in January 2015, but the Ivory Coast international struggled to assert himself at the Etihad in the 18 months before Guardiola's arrival. He spent the first season of Guardiola's tenure on loan at Stoke City before returning to Swansea for half the fee City paid for him in the summer 2017. He scored three goals for the Swans last season before tearing a cruciate knee ligament against Leicester in February. The Swans moved him on loan to Al Arabi in Qatar in January.
Jadon Sancho - Sancho left the Etihad in the hunt for regular first-team football last summer and has since impressed at German side Borussia Dortmund to the extent that Gareth Southgate called him up to England's senior side for the Nations League games against Croatia and Spain in November. He's been one of the stars of Dortmund's Bundesliga title bid and started in the Three Lions' Euro 2020 qualifying win over the Czech Republic on March 22.
Yaya Toure - The City legend left under something of a cloud at the end of the Blues' record-breaking run to the Premier League crown in 2018. It was the Ivorian's third league title at the club, to add to his FA Cup and two League Cup medals, but he never saw eye-to-eye with Guardiola and was released to join Olympiacos in the summer. A pitch at City's training ground is named after him.
Angus Gunn - Had Guardiola known that Claudio Bravo would suffer such a serious Achilles tendon injury, Angus Gunn might well have stayed at the Etihad as Ederson's back-up. The Blues were not averse to letting him leave, though, with Southampton signing the England under-21 international for £13.5m in the summer on the back of an eye-catching season in the Championship with Norwich. The stopper has mainly been an understudy for the Saints.
Joe Hart - It was a more drawn-out exit than perhaps Joe Hart would have liked, after two seasons on loan at Torino and West Ham respectively, but the former England 'keeper finally got a permanent move away from the Etihad last summer two years after Guardiola had deemed his ability with the ball at his feet to be sub-standard. Injuries to Tom Heaton and Nick Pope at Turf Moor gave Hart a run of games for Burnley earlier in the season, but he's been playing second fiddle and on the bench lately.
Jason Denayer - Jason Denayer never played a senior game for City before Lyon signed him in the summer. His four seasons at the Etihad were punctuated by loan spells at Celtic, Galatasaray (twice) and Sunderland before his permanent move to Ligue 1 was confirmed last summer. The 23-year-old defender offered a glimpse at what he could have offered to Guardiola's side had he been given the chance, with an impressive display against the Blues in the Champions League group-stage game that Lyon won 2-1 in September.
Brahim Diaz - The Spanish wonderkid, who moved to Real Madrid for £15.5m in the January window, made it plain that he simply could not resist the lure of the Bernabeu. City desperately wanted him to stay and offered him a new deal but, rather than lose him for nothing at the end of his contract in summer, reluctantly agreed to the sale. He's made just a couple of appearances for his new club so far.
Govnor10
67
if a player wants out of the team then he has to go says Pep. You cannot work with a player who's heart is not there.
kaalmstz
51
Gardiola is the man. apart from Sancho which He left in search for first team at a tender age. you can say Pep did good business. freed Man City from so much dead weight.
fohiklmort
45
"Pep Guardiola exposed." A thread by a guy named @ClockEndJames who turns out to be an Arsenal fan wrote this on twitter which is now spreading quickly and gaining interests from many football fanatics around the world. Give it a read and drop in your opinions on this thread as well . "Firstly, Guardiola is an inheritance merchant. Look at the players he inherited at each club... Barca: Messi, Henry, Ronaldinho, Iniesta, Xavi, Eto'o, Busquets, Puyol, Toure Bayern (treble winners): Robben, Ribery, Lahm, Kroos, Schweinsteiger, Muller, Mandzukic" Man City (CL semi finalists): Silva, Aguero, Sterling, De Bruyne, Kompany, Otamendi Fernandinho . And yet he STILL manages to spend well over a BILLION between these clubs. Conte and Guardiola arrived in the Prem at the same time. One inherited a 10th placed team and the other had just reached the CL semis. One spent £90M and the other £213M . Who implemented their style quicker and won the title in record breaking fashion first? Makes you think." "While Conte was revolutionising the Premier League with his back three system which everyone, even Wenger, copied. Guardiola went trophyless losing 4-0 to Everton and getting knocked out the cup by Wigan. At the end of the day, at Man City Guardiola has won the League Cup and the Premier League, exactly the same as what Pellegrini did.” “Guardiola arrived at a treble winning Bayern side and failed to even get beyond the semi finals during his 3 years there (losing 5-0 to Madrid in one of them). Guardiola's Barca got shown up by Mourinho's Madrid when they steam rolled La Liga, accumulating over 100 points, and he also lost the CL to Chelsea. He quickly left the club after the wheels began to fall off.” “Guardiola failed to win a single away tie in the Champions League at Barca.Not only has Guardiola never won a CL without Messi, but the two he did win were riddled with cheating and foul play (as you'll see in the next tweet). The man himself admits to being lucky at Barca (exposed by an African, ironically).” “Guardiola was certainly a beneficiary of Uefalona, as we all know the scandalous semi final against Chelsea for example, and the Robin van Persie red card. If not for cheating such as this, Guardiola would have zero European titles. Makes you think.” “For a man who spends so much money, Guardiola's track record of signings is surprisingly poor. At Man City alone, he's signed expensive flops such as Bravo, Nolito, Mahrez, Mendy, Jesus to name a few. Of course, no one realises this because he is always bailed out by the players he inherited. But imagine if Guardiola had to rely on a team made purely off his own signings…” "Another huge myth about Guardiola is he's good with youth. The truth is the opposite, he is a destroyer of youth. Just ask Sancho, Foden, Diaz. ‘Enemy of football’ Mourinho gave 4 times as many minutes to Man Utd academy products than Guardiola did at Man City. Not to mention Guardiola's history of racism towards African players, in particular Samuel Eto'o and Yaya Toure (who he bullied twice). Truly vile and disgusting behaviour which is completely ignored by everyone. Just imagine if it was Mourinho…” "Guardiola can't handle personalities. First thing he did when he came to England was bin Joe Hart, who at the time was a perfectly good goalkeeper, certainly better than his replacement Claudio Bravo (who Pep paid a record fee for) who he in turn replaced the season after anyway. In fact I would suggest Guardiola is a poor man manager full stop. Why is Bravo the only player to have ever followed Guardiola to a new club? Whereas ‘evil dinosaur’ Mourinho, for example, has had many players join him at his new clubs. Makes you think.” "And just cos I'm an Arsenal fan I'm going to shoehorn in the fact that 19 year old Jack Wilshere played Pep's Barca off the park. There is corruption and racism following Guardiola at every club he goes to. Couple that with inheriting world class squads and open chequebooks, he doesn't actually seem all that impressive.” "Not convinced by anything I've said? Watch Guardiola himself as he selects his next club. Do you think he will take up a challenge like Mourinho always does? Or will he be off to a one team league like PSG or Juventus? I will summarise by saying this : Guardiola only succeeds in circumstances where it's impossible to fail. End of thread."
BogdanVukovic
45
But in the end he made a world class team
sayantanpatra
40
But he also made a great team.... Pep Guardiola is a legend coach.... and he takes all decision correctly...... 😉😉😊
radcdlno
38
Pep already inherited a tittle winning squad in all areas he goes buys more quality players to win the league ...anybody can inherit Aguero debruyn kompang Joe hart Dzeko Toure add a few more and secure a tittle ...Then there was Jose inherited a Chelsea side that had won the tittle for 50 years he wins it and defends it in a league where sir Alex and Wenger are already established ...he joins inter where Milan have established their force in Italy and Europe having gathered pure talents the likes of Inzagi ronaldinho Beckam but still manages to win it ...Pep is a winner buy after buying everyone and everything ...Even Conte established his system faster ..