Kieran Maguire: Pep Guardiola will be ‘extremely unhappy’ as overseas Man City plan revealed
Pep Guardiola will be extremely unhappy if Man City are forced to play in an expanded version of the UEFA Super Cup.
That is the view of finance guru Kieran Maguire, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about the plans to revamp the annual clash between the Champions League and Europa League winners.
UEFA are planning on transforming the even into an eight-team mini-tournament, as reported by the Daily Mail last Friday (21 October).
The Champions League runners-up are set to be invited, as are the winners of the Europa Conference League.
It is not yet clear which other four teams will make up the numbers.
It is also claimed that UEFA is looking at the possibility of staging the even outside Europe.
But the fixture calendar is already congested and Guardiola will not be happy if City have to fit in several more matches, claims Maguire.
“Increasing the quantity is likely to reduce the quality of matches,” he told Football Insider’s Adam Williams.
“If Uefa does expand the Super Cup to an eight-team tournament, I can see the likes of Pep Guardiola being extremely unhappy. He looks after his players as best he can but they are already being stretched to the limit.
“They are playing in the Premier League, the Champions League and the two cup competitions as well, which City do traditionally give a lot of respect to, unlike some others.
“To expand the Super Cup is not going to go down well with a lot of people at City.
“When you factor in pre-season tours, you have got players basically working non-stop throughout the year apart from a very short summer break.“
In other news, Gabby Agbonlahor digs at “sloppy” Kevin de Bruyne after what he spotted at Man City.