On-loan Juventus centre-back Mehdi Benatia has claimed Pep Guardiola is distant with his players because of bad experiences during his time as manager at Barcelona.
The two worked together at Bayern Munich, the club Guardiola joined after leaving the Camp Nou after four extremely successful years.
And Benatia said the now-Manchester City manager told him why he did not form close relationships with his players.
“He explained why to me once: he was disappointed by his relationship with some players at Barcelona, so he told me, ‘I just do my job – the coach’s,’” Benatia said, as reported by Sport English.
Guardiola played a key role in developing a number of stars including Lionel Messi, Pedro and Sergio Busquets, having managed them when they youngsters in Barcelona’s B team.
However, the Spaniard struggled to work alongside the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who left Barcelona just a year after his big money move to the Camp Nou.
Meanwhile, at Man City, Guardiola has been clinical with his big name players. During the summer, the former Bayern boss loaned out the experienced Joe Hart and he then sidelined the club’s iconic midfielder Yaya Toure following a disagreement with his agent.
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