Jack Grealish future and Kyle Walker snub – Every Word from part two of Pep Guardiola’s Bournemouth preview press conference | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola has addressed the media on a number of subjects including the future of Jack Grealish at Manchester City beyond this summer.

The Catalan coach has been speaking ahead of Manchester City’s return to competitive action this weekend as they travel to face Bournemouth in the quarter-final stage of the FA Cup with a place at Wembley Stadium up for grabs.

It is the crunch phase of the campaign in many ways for the reigning Premier League champions as they not only brace themselves to relinquish their top-flight crown to Liverpool, but also fight to retain a place in the UEFA Champions League for the next campaign.

In a season that has been far and away Pep Guardiola’s worst since joining the Etihad Stadium club in 2016, there does somehow remain the hope of silverware through the FA Cup, although Bournemouth provide a stern test under the ever-impressive leadership of Andoni Iraola.

The City manager’s pre-match press conference brought about a remarkable suggestion from Guardiola that nobody within the club even deserves a financial bonus should they manager to claim the FIFA Club World Cup in the summer, such has been the nature of their campaign.

And in the second-half of his media address, there was more of the same criticism as Guardiola was specifically asked to assess the standard of coaching and levels put out by not only himself, but his fellow staff members working on the first-team squad.

Following the release of part two of Pep Guardiola’s Bournemouth preview press conference from Friday afternoon, here is every single word from the Manchester City manager on numerous talking points!

On whether he would understand a desire from Jack Grealish to leave Manchester City this summer with a view towards securing a place in Thomas Tuchel’s England squad for the next World Cup

“I’m not going to take individually what happens in the future. The future is Bournemouth and after Leicester. Individually, I’m sorry, I’m not involved. When we are already winning the Premier League, we don’t have any more titles to fight, I understand completely.

“They can do it privately with the club, it’s fine, but I’m not involved, I don’t want to be involved because we are here to do our job and try to get Man City to win games, that’s what we have to do.”

On whether the FA Cup can rescue Manchester City’s season

“I said many times recently; Of course it could be nice to arrive in the final of the FA Cup and win it, and qualify for the Champions League, but I’m pretty sure right now what happened before is a big success. But the season has been poor, it’s not going to change.

“Our standards and many things were not good, this is the reality. So it’s not going to change for the fact, you know, to win one title. We will be happy? Of course we want to do it! We have one more but how we behave all of us this season, it’s not going to change so qualify for the Champions League.

“Again, I said it’s a big success, winning the FA Cup is a huge success, but the season has not been good.”

On whether it feels like the ‘last dance’ for this era of the Manchester City squad

“We’ll see. Listen, we have many changes for the players, you know. When I talk about Fernandinho, or Alex Zinchenko, or Gabriel (Jesus), or David (Silva), or before Vinny (Kompany), there have been many players that have been (here).

“It’s not just these four, five, six or seven, eight, nine players, I don’t know how much have been here for a long time. They were important but there were a lot of players before that they are not here right now.

“So what is important here is not this area, or the area to win in this season, I don’t know what’s going to happen, and what is important is the club that has been there for the past 15, 20 years has been there all the time.

“And the club is committed to continue being up there as long as possible. That is why I’m concerned and I want to work with the club, and with the players to get back.”

On wanting any potential departing Manchester City players to leave with an FA Cup medal and Champions League place

“Yeah, of course. And for the young players as well, for our fans, of course. I’m not saying that they don’t want it, they didn’t want it. What I’m saying is that we were not able. But of course we have incredible things ahead of us, so the season is still there, it’s two months, the last part of the season that will finish with a Premier League, FA Cup, and after that we start a new season in the World Cup.

“So we finish these two competitions here, the season will be over here, and we refresh for a few weeks. And after we go to the World Cup to start the next season. So, and this is a target I have.”

On whether the quality of football has got to suffer at some stage with increasing games, tournament, and demands on players

“Yeah, we spoke about that subject many times. I’ve seen many managers and you know, what happens is what it is. So I think this subject we spoke in this beautiful audience many, many times. It’s the same. I don’t have to add anything else.”

On how he would describe his performance for Manchester City this season, and those of the coaches around him

“Really poor.”

On Manchester City’s struggles being down to injuries and fatigue – the reasoning behind poor coaching this season

“Forget about it. The titles we won in the past, never the opponents gave us a red carpet to win the titles that we won. My duty was to overcome the situation much better than I’ve done.

(Why have you not been able to?) “A few details are the reason why it happened. Hopefully it won’t happen next season, this is important.

(And you remain as enthusiastic and energetic as ever to put it right?) “Yeah, I am.”

On whether he or the club has been in contact with Kyle Walker since he left in January

“No, we saw him once, he was injured and had a break at Milan. He came here and we saw him.”

On whether he still views Kyle Walker as ‘his player’ despite being at Milan

“He’s a player for Milan.”