Pep Guardiola Must Trim Flab from Squad to Make Manchester City Lean and Mean

It’s taken Manchester City longer than usual to bring their summer targets to the club this year, but they are likely to be satisfied with the business they have done so far.

They’ve spent around £160 million on Ilkay Gundogan, Nolito, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Leroy Sane, Gabriel Jesus, John Stones and Marlos Moreno.

Zinchenko and Moreno will be stored away for the future, with their immediate development overseen elsewhere, but the others have added some much-needed quality to a squad that was struggling badly as last season drew to a close.

In a market where value is rare, City appear to have done well. Ilkay Gundogan was a snip at £20 million, and at £13.8 million, the same price Crystal Palace paid for Andros Townsend, Nolito was a sensible deal.

He’s a Spain international who was chased by Barcelona this summer, as he revealed to Sky Sports. He may be 29, but he’s already shown he can bring great passing quality to a side that will look to play a possession-based game.

Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press

Jesus is perhaps the signing most celebrated in the Etihad boardroom, with City having beaten the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich to his signature, as noted by the Manchester Evening News' Alice McKeegan.

Jesus, 19, is one of the finest young South American talents. Every club in the world would love to have him. It was City who barged their way to the front of the bustling queue, thanks in part to a personal phone call to the player from manager Pep Guardiola.

Where City are yet to make much headway is with outgoings. Their squad as it stands is too bloated. Yaya Toure, Wilfried Bony, Samir Nasri and Eliaquim Mangala are yet to make a matchday squad—four established players sat on huge wages. Something needs to give.

Toure, at 33, is past his best, and Guardiola’s reasoning for leaving him out of the 21-man squad that travelled to Romania was telling.

“He is a player of us and he is training amazing, but I was not sure if he was going to play, and so I prefer it if he stays there training good in Manchester," he said. “We travelled with two young guys, and for the selection I prefer it to be the young guys than Yaya Toure.

“I prefer it if he stays there training and focuses on the next game. I have a lot of respect of him, for his career and quality, but for the first days—against Sunderland—we were looking for a more intensive game. That is why he didn’t play, the only reason why.”

The suggestion that Toure can no longer offer the kind of intensity the new manager demands must be a worry for the Ivorian. Given the way Guardiola’s sides play, it was a damning verdict.

Toure’s place in the pantheon of City greats is secure with countless match-winning performances and critical goals marking him out as arguably the most important signing in the Sheikh Mansour era. He was brought in to help City become a winning side again, and few have delivered on that brief as emphatically as the Ivorian.

But Guardiola’s ruthlessness knows no bounds. In his first 12 months as Barcelona manager, he disposed of Lilian Thuram, Ronaldinho, Gianluca Zambrotta, Deco and Samuel Eto’o. Reputations mean nothing, as Joe Hart is finding out much to his cost.

Toure, though, is perhaps the most difficult of City’s unwanted stars to shift. His wages are astronomical. The chances of another team coming in and matching them seem remote. The likelihood now is he will sit and wait for the final year of his contract to run down before moving on a free transfer.

Bony, a £25 million signing from Swansea City back in January 2015, is desperate for a move. His record at City has been appalling. He’s scored just 10 goals in 46 games for the club and hasn’t managed one this calendar year.

More than that, his style is incompatible with City’s. Bony has some genuine strengths, as he showed at the Liberty Stadium where he was the Premier League’s top scorer in 2014. But his lack of movement means he will never excel in the City side.

Guardiola appears wise to his limitations. “Bony is a really nice guy and he trained really good so I don't have complaints about him,” he said after leaving him out of City’s final pre-season friendly against Arsenal in Gothenburg. Talk about being damned with faint praise.

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According to the Daily Mail (h/t the Daily Express' Jack Staplehurst), West Ham United are interested in Bony after the injury to their new signing Andre Ayew, who suffered a thigh injury and will be out for four months. In the right side, Bony is capable of scoring goals, and the Hammers would be a good move for him.

City’s only recognised strikers are Sergio Aguero and Kelechi Iheanacho—hardly a wealth of options. But when one factors in Jesus’ January arrival and the versatility of the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane, their need for another out-and-out central striker is reduced. Bony’s agent, Francis Kacou, is likely to be doing everything he can to find a solution for the Ivorian.

Nasri is a hugely talented player whose attitude has held him back. At his best, he is one of the most gifted players in the City squad, but weight issues have hardly impressed Guardiola in pre-season, and it’s in Nasri’s area of the pitch that City boast the most strength in depth.

The situation with Mangala is perhaps the most intriguing. He cost the club in excess of £42 million, once agent fees and his third-party ownership were settled. He boasts some exceptional natural attributes, the kind any defender would love. Yet his inability to read the game and sense danger, as well as his apparent nervousness, has blighted his City career.

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The club appear to have accepted he must move on, but they must also accept they will lose significant money on him. A season-long loan move seems likely, with Valencia an option having showed interest last summer, as reported by ESPN FC's Richard Jolly.

He has fallen behind 18-year-old Tosin Adarabioyo and new signing Stones, who already appears City’s main man at the back. The club still hope Vincent Kompany can put his fitness worries behind him and form a partnership with Stones, and Nicolas Otamendi is also challenging for a place. Mangala has been squeezed out.

At 25, there’s plenty of scope for improvement, and there will be a club willing to take the risk.

Txiki Begiristain, the club's sporting director, was under pressure heading into this summer—but by landing Guardiola and a string of top-quality signings, he has been praised by those who were sceptical of his ability to attract the biggest and best.

His job now must be to trim the squad. Guardiola has traditionally worked with smaller squads of versatile players. He feels that's the best way to create harmony in a group.

Begiristain needs to find a solution for City's unwanted stars, leaving Guardiola with the squad he wants this season.

Rob Pollard is Bleacher Report's lead Manchester City correspondent and follows the club from a Manchester base. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow him on Twitter @RobPollard_.