Guardiola issues emphatic response to Aguero, Kompany reports
Pep Guardiola’s press conference lasted over 40 minutes as he stated very clearly that Vincent Kompany and Sergio Aguero are not leaving.
The star duo were facing an ‘uncertain future’ at Manchester City after the captain was left out of the matchday squad against Barcelona and Sergio Aguero was benched.
However, Guardiola categorically denied the claims made and explained at some length the situation with both players.
“Out of my plans?,” Guardiola asked. “I think I took a decision about my plans, and my plans are that Sergio and Vincent Kompany are part of the future of Manchester City,” he said. “Kompany was not fit.
“Aguero was a tactical decision, we wanted more in the middle. I try to keep the ball in Camp Nou because I believe when you have the ball, Messi, Suarez and Neymar don’t have it and they are still dangerous, but less dangerous.
“I spoke to Sergio about that, he was so understanding. He helped us a lot in the last minutes. That was the reason why.
“When Sergio decides to leave City it will be his decision. Next time you write this, that he is not in my plans, you can call me or Simon [City’s press officer] – you may not have my number but you can call Simon – and we can explain what is the truth.”
Pep: Vincent wasn’t fully fit that’s why we took a decision at Camp Nou. On Sergio, I said after the game it was a tactical decision. #mcfc pic.twitter.com/23lz2P5Ejm
— Manchester City (@ManCity) October 21, 2016
On Kompany, he added: “I had never been with Vincent in the past. What I saw when he is fit, guys… he’s a real central defender. I like him. But we tried to take care of him. He went to the doctors in Barcelona and said I’m not able to play. The people say no because of Pep, Vincent and Sergio, but you can use the press conference to ask me the truth.
“My decision was to leave Aguero on the bench. If we lose I’m guilty, if we win I’m a genius. I said we were not ready to win the Premier League when we won the first 10 games. We won 6-0 in Bucharest, but the result was 10-0. We created chances and missed penalties. We have to improve but that is normal.
“Three months together, you cannot imagine how difficult it is to build something. Barcelona have been playing together for 15 years, they play in a natural way. We are improving, some of the things we did [against Barca] we did really well.”