Gael Clichy paints a picture of a Manchester City squad embarking on an exciting but uncertain journey under the guidance of Pep Guardiola.
The French left-back has one year remaining on his City contract and will be relied upon as part of Guardiola’s group for the upcoming 2016-17 campaign.
But he knows others will be not so fortunate, and says those who do stay around may have to change their ways if they are to succeed at the Etihad Stadium.
Clichy has revealed that several of his team-mates have been kept away from first-team training sessions since returning overweight from their summer holidays.
And in outlining the changes required of Guardiola’s goalkeepers and centre-backs he has suggested that rumours linking a number of senior players with moves away from Manchester this summer - including Eliaquim Mangala and modern City legends Joe Hart and Vincent Kompany – may not be wide of the mark.
The former Arsenal man insists, however, that those who prove their worth to Guardiola and his staff will reap the benefits.
“I think he’s an ideal manager for any kind of player,” he told reporters. “The goalkeeper needs to be better with their feet, the centre backs are improving, the full-backs are important, the centre midfield — he said something like, ‘If he could play 11 midfielders, he would play them’ so I guess for a midfielder it’s unbelievable. And the strikers are going to score a lot of goals because we are going to create a lot of chances.
“I can even tell you that the assistant manager will improve you, so he’s the kind of guy that, if you’re lucky to work with him during your career, he is someone you will remember for a long time because he’s truly impressive.”
City have been linked with a number of full-backs in recent months, while youngsters such as Pablo Maffeo and Angelino are expected to put last season’s four senior options – all over the age of 30 – under pressure.
Clichy and Bacary Sagna are the two most likely to remain at City heading into next season, with Pablo Zabaleta and Aleksandar Kolarov expected to depart, but the left-sided defender says they are all putting in the hard yards this summer.
“Probably we need to look at the statistics,” he added. “Of course we’re into our 30s but we do as much work as the youngsters. I would talk more about the quality and he likes players to be composed on the ball. And that’s for him to decide if we are good enough or not.”
There was another hint, too, that the players will know they are under threat: “What we can say is we’re working hard like everybody else and those that will be lucky to stay here will have an amazing season because he’s a coach that gives a lot of energy on and off the field and, for my side, it’s been incredible for the last three weeks.”
There is also an acknowledgement that Guardiola will challenge his players in ways they have never been before, as was seen when Kolarov lined up at centre-back in City’s first and, to date, only pre-season friendly.
“Everyone has been playing a bit everywhere, there were only a few players that came back,” he added, explaining Kolarov’s redeployment. “Now the full squad is all together and he has told us we will probably have to play in different positions for a few games in pre-season.
“I’m saying this and maybe when [the first Premier League game against] Sunderland comes and I’m not playing I will tell you, ‘It’s a disaster’ but in fact it’s good to try new things. Instead of being on the left side for 10-15 years you may suddenly discover something different.
“You’re probably going to discover that you’re not good enough to play there, you miss the qualities to play there but it’s all good. It’s new and you’re discovering but the main thing will be Sunderland, but we’re a few weeks away from this so we have time to see how it goes.
That many City players are expected to leave this summer owes to a number of sub-standard performances during Manuel Pellegrini’s final season in charge of the club.
The Blues limped to a fourth-place Premier League finish but made the Champions League semi-finals in an unpredictable and often frustrating campaign for supporters, many of whom accused the manager and some of the players of switching off after it became known in February that Guardiola would arrive this summer.
Clichy himself admits that the squad’s concentration levels did drop, but he insists that is only natural.
“It’s normal. For example, if you’re working and in two weeks you’re going to Hawaii for a month holiday or a honeymoon, you will have to think about this.
“Even if you know the present moment is important, you cannot just block this. You should be able to block it but you’re in Manchester, it’s raining and you know in two weeks you’ll be in Hawaii on the beach so you have to think about things like that. Probably [Pellegrini] was right when he said that.”
But he did deny that Guardiola’s hands-on approach so far is a direct result of life becoming too comfortable at the Etihad in recent years.
“I wouldn’t say too comfortable,” he contested. “Guardiola, Wenger, Mourinho, Big Sam — any manager who comes into a new club will bring this thing for the first year at least, that all the players want to play harder and train harder.
“It’s just normal, if you have a new boss you just want to impress. Perhaps when you spend more time, after two years the levels drop a little bit. But it’s not the case that it was Pellegrini’s fault, in fact it was probably the players’ fault because that’s human.
“As soon as you’ve been in the place for a few years, you unconsciously drop a little bit — it shouldn’t be like that but it is, and not only in football. Given the fact that you have a new manager bringing something different, and of course when you have someone like Guardiola who has won so many trophies, then you have to adapt and quickly."
- Goal