Tijjani Reijnders has provided the clearest account yet of why Pep Guardiola chose to step away from Manchester City after the 2025\u201326 campaign. Reijnders said Guardiola told the squad he was “so tired” after years of relentless pursuit of excellence and that, in his view, the manager had reached a point where he did not have the energy for the routine task of informing players they would not play.<\/p>\n
Reijnders called Guardiola a \u201cvery intense manager and a football genius,\u201d admitting he felt it a \u201cshame \u201cto have only been able to work under the storied coach for a single season. He added: \u201cIt is his choice,\u201d the former AC Milan midfielder reflected. \u201cHe no longer has the energy to disappoint guys when they are not in the squad or are not playing, he told us. After 10 years, it is enough. And I understand that. By \u2018intense coach,\u2019 I mean in a very positive light, by the way. He tries to get the absolute best out of a group of players.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guardiola will take on a short-term ambassador and adviser role with the City Football Group, and Reijnders suggested the manager may seek a different challenge if he returns to coaching, with international football an option. Guardiola has spoken of a long-standing ambition to one day manage at a World Cup and a continental championship, a dream he articulated as far back as 2018. The 55-year-old has previously dismissed the possibility of becoming Spain manager despite having represented his national team 47 times between 1992 and 2001. He has not given a formal reason for that position, but remains a proud Catalan who in recent years has supported the region\u2019s separatist movement. Potential national teams mentioned in connection with his future include the United States, England, Italy, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n
For Reijnders, a player who impressed at the FIFA Club World Cup and began his debut Premier League season as a starter, the campaign offered mixed returns. He scored four of his five Premier League goals in one month but then fell out of favour after February. He started only two of City\u2019s final 15 Premier League matches, one after the title had already been conceded to Arsenal, and was unused in nine of those matches as Guardiola preferred Rodri and Bernardo Silva in central midfield, with Nico Gonz\u00e1lez also ahead in the pecking order.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Reijnders: Guardiola left because he lacked the energy to keep disappointing players every day. 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14242,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[238,969],"tags":[1505,1305,1304],"class_list":["post-14243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-city","category-premier-league","tag-accountability","tag-bench-selection","tag-benching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}