The Catalan has disclosed that Pep Guardiola has insisted on keeping one Manchester City player on the team during the summer.
Guardiola usually does not obstruct a player’s desire to leave the team; he allowed Cole Palmer to join Chelsea from City in the summer.
Additionally, he granted his approval for Julian Alvarez’s impending £81 million transfer to Atletico Madrid and listened to his need for more playing time.
This summer, the Premier League winners have only added one player: Brazilian winger Savinho, who cost £30.8 million from sister team Troyes.
Although they might not add another, Guardiola has already stated that one player will remain in the lineup.
James McAtee, 21, a playmaker who spent two seasons on loan at Sheffield United, was one of four academy products to start the Community Shield victory over Manchester United. He is for preseason action.
In a captivating performance, McAtee struck the post. In his news conference following the game, Guardiola stated that he informed Txiki Begiristain, the sporting director, that the young player is off-limits because the squad requires his “specific quality.”
“It is difficult to find players with a sense of goal in small spaces who attack the final third and McAtee has that quality,” Guardiola said, as per Manchester Evening News.
“That’s why I said to Txiki at the beginning of the season that I don’t want to loan him and I don’t want to sell him because I need his specific quality in small spaces. [James] McAtee has this ability.
“I have to see them and the first games I didn’t like it much and I told him afterwards: ‘Your impact in the game is not big, I want more.’ After, he did well and his impact was really good.”
After making brief appearances off the bench throughout the previous three seasons, McAtee made his first official start for City on Saturday.
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Before being immediately relegated, he assisted Sheff United in being promoted to the Premier League, and Guardiola thinks his time at Bramall Lane will be very beneficial.
“His period at Sheffield United helped him a lot to give value and suffer to get points, physicality, win duels, this kind of stuff that normally they don’t do in the City academy. It helped him a lot playing there.”
