Pep Guardiola urged the EFL to alter eligibility rules so Manchester City\u2019s recent signing Marc Gu\u00e9hi could take part in the Carabao Cup final, but he looks set to be disappointed. The EFL relaxed cup-tied regulations this season, allowing Antoine Semenyo to represent two clubs in the competition because he arrived before the semi-final first leg, yet the governing body has refused to do more.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully we can convince the Carabao Cup that Marc can play the final. I don\u2019t understand why he cannot play the final,\u201d Guardiola said after securing City\u2019s progression to the Wembley showpiece for the first time in five years. He added: \u201cYou buy a player for a lot of money and he is not able to play for a rule I don\u2019t understand. Hopefully they can change it. Antoine arrived before the first [leg] so could play. And now it\u2019s the final. Why should [Gu\u00e9hi] not play? We pay his salary, he is our player.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guardiola also confirmed he told Manchester City officials they \u201chave to ask\u201d about Gu\u00e9hi being allowed to play. Despite that, Martyn Ziegler of The Times has reported the EFL will not revisit the relaxed rules, leaving City\u2019s appeal unlikely to succeed.<\/p>\n
Gu\u00e9hi, who lined up on the opposite side when Crystal Palace beat City in last season\u2019s FA Cup final, will therefore be a spectator for the March 22 showdown with Arsenal. Since joining, the England international has started in the Premier League, playing 90 minutes against Wolverhampton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur alongside Abdukodir Khusanov. In the recent Carabao Cup tie, Nathan Ak\u00e9 filled that position next to Khusanov and was replaced at half-time by 20-year-old Max Alleyne, recalled from a loan at Watford last month. R\u00faben Dias was back on the bench after recovering from a hamstring injury and, barring setbacks, should be fit to partner Khusanov on March 22.<\/p>\n
Although Gu\u00e9hi appears unlikely to feature in the Carabao Cup, his Champions League debut is now possible. After the league phase clubs can make up to three changes to their UEFA A lists, allowing January signings to be registered. Semenyo missed the last two league phase fixtures against B\u00f8do\/Glimt and Galatasaray because he was not in the UEFA squad, but both Gu\u00e9hi and Semenyo will be eligible when City take on Real Madrid, Benfica, B\u00f8do\/Glimg or Inter in the round of 16 starting March 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Guardiola seeks EFL rule change to let Marc Gu\u00e9hi play the Carabao Cup final; request refused. (EU)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6529,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1067,238,1163],"tags":[801,1066,1047],"class_list":["post-6530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-carabao-cup","category-manchester-city","category-transfers","tag-antoine-semenyo","tag-carabao-cup","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6530","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=6530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}