It doesn’t matter if they’re the last two clubs on the planet. Never.
Pep Guardiola has implemented a strict transfer policy that bans him from buying players from two specific clubs – with no exceptions.
Guardiola did limited but effective business in the summer, signing Josko Gvardiol and Jermey Doku to add to last season’s Treble-winning squad.
Even though he has a fairly sizeable chunk of money to spend every year, the City boss restricts himself somewhat by refusing to buy from two clubs.
In a new book on the Catalan, Guardiola informed long-time colleague Txiki Begiristain that players from Barcelona and Bayern Munich would be out of the question.
Guardiola turned down chance to sign Lionel Messi for Man City
Journalist Marti Perarnau is releasing a book named ‘God Save Pep’, at the start of next year.
Inside will be a whole new insight into the way the master tactician operates and what has made him the success that he is.
He even once turned down the opportunity to sign Lionel Messi for City in 2020.
As per Sport Witness, Perarnau told AS: “It was (Lionel) Messi who offered himself (to Manchester City in 2020).
“The one who knocked on the door was Leo. Pep (Guardiola) had his reticence. He is very clear not to touch Barca and not to touch Bayern.
“City had a list of Bayern players to sign, and Pep told Txiki (Begiristain, Sporting Director) not to touch anyone. And there was a lot of them, almost all of them except for the goalkeeper.”
There was the odd exception – the two most notable being Thiago Alcantara from Barca when at Bayern and Claudio Brava to Man City from Barcelona (the less said about that one the better though).
On the other hand he has no problem with selling players to those clubs. In recent times Eric Garcia, Ferran Torres, Ilkay Gundogan and Joao Cancelo have all joined Barcelona.
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