Guardiola: Man City will have to trim squad to avoid unhappy players

Pep Guardiola says Manchester City must sell players in order to avoid an unhappy squad.

City have already made three signings this summer, as they aim to improve on an underwhelming 2024-25 campaign.

Rayan Ait-Nouri, Rayan Cherki and Tijjani Reijnders have joined from Wolves, Lyon and AC Milan respectively, with the trio arriving in time to feature at the Club World Cup.

More signings are anticipated, though Guardiola also stressed the need to trim the squad in order to avoid players who are not going to feature regularly becoming frustrated with a lack of minutes.

"I would love to have the players that we have now all season," said Guardiola, as per ESPN, ahead of City's clash with Al Ain.

"I would love it. I don't have any complaints about the players, how they behave.

"The problem is they will be unhappy during the season. They will be sad, they will be disappointed. I don't want that. For me it's not a problem.

"I do that for them. So that's why we have to see what happens. We still have a long time, I would say, until the transfer window will be closed."

Jack Grealish, Kyle Walker and Kalvin Phillips are all expected to be available for a transfer.

None of the trio have made the trip to the United States for the Club World Cup, while James McAtee was also left out and is instead featuring for England at the Under-21 European Championships.

Ilkay Gundogan, meanwhile, is reportedly of interest to Turkish giants Galatasaray.

"I don't know anything," said Guardiola when asked about Gundogan's future. "I didn't speak with him, and if he was not going to be part [of the squad] he would not be here.

"But at the same time, we have, right now, a [big] squad, too many players, so we cannot go with 26, 27 players this season because there would be more without playing, and step by step maybe a few players are going to move.

"But right now, Ilkay is absolutely part of my mind and the team."