Pep Guardiola has suggested that Manchester City will head into the season undercooked as the club look to offload players before the transfer window closes.
City – who have 31 senior players on their books – are in Sicily for a friendly with Palermo on Saturday night without Jack Grealish, Stefan Ortega and James McAtee – all of whom are set to depart in the coming weeks.
Everton are among those keen on Grealish, with Nottingham Forest leading the race for McAtee, while Guardiola cast doubt over how much influence Rodri can have in the opening weeks of the campaign.
‘We need a little bit (fewer numbers),’ Guardiola said. ‘I don’t like (lots) of players. A lot of players should leave.
‘The transfer window is moving a lot and many things are going to happen. We’ll see what happens and how we will handle it. We’ll handle it the best as possible.
‘The good mood is quite similar to what we were living at the Club World Cup. Maybe we missed some friendly games to prepare and arrive the first three games against Wolves, Spurs and Brighton a little bit better but we needed to rest and decided to make more training sessions than play games.’
Pep Guardiola revealed he is expecting a number of departures from his bloated squad before the transfer window slams shut
Jack Grealish has not travelled with the club for their pre-season friendly as he awaits a move away from Manchester
Meanwhile Rodri has also remained at home as he continues to make his return from injury
Rodri, Phil Foden and Josko Gvardiol are not out in Italy for the second of a two-match pre-season, with the trio all not deemed fully fit.
Rodri is back training with the team but the groin problem picked up during the Club World Cup defeat by Al Hilal has seen City tread carefully with his comeback.
Guardiola is predicting that the Ballon d’Or winner will only be eased back into action and may only be properly available towards after the September international break.
‘Rodri is getting better but he had a big injury in the last game against Al Hilal,’ Guardiola added. ‘He has trained better in the last few days, hopefully after the international break is when he will be really fit.
‘Hopefully in these early games he can play some minutes but what is important he doesn’t have pain because we don’t want Rodri coming back injured. We try desperately to avoid that. He is not ready for 90 minutes.’
