Former Manchester City player Bacary Sagna has shared some details regarding what it’s like to play under Pep Guardiola.
The right-back spent three years at the Etihad Stadium between 2014 and 2017, with his final season at the club being Guardiola’s first one in charge.
Having retired back in 2020, the Frenchman is set to feature in a charity game next month to help raise money for Ukraine, which he has recently been promoting on talkSPORT, in addition to speaking about his former clubs.
Sagna says Guardiola is a demanding manager
During his recent appearance on talkSPORT, Sagna had this to say when asked what it’s like to have Guardiola as a manager.
He said: “He’s very demanding, very demanding tactically, very demanding while we’re on the pitch, when you’re off the pitch he’s fully dedicated to football. He doesn’t have any specific time where he can’t speak about football no matter the time, no matter the day.
“Whenever he has to say something he will say and he won’t even bother taking players out no matter who it is if he thinks he’s not having the right spirit.
“He’s proven at Barcelona, he did it when he came to Man City with [Sergio] Aguero. Aguero was a top striker but he put him on the bench because he was expecting more defensively from him. I think he’s a fair coach.”
During his time with the Citizens, Sagna made 86 appearances in total across all competitions, with 25 of those coming under Guardiola.
Across the 2016/17 season, the full-back started 19 of the 25 games he featured in, with injuries impacting his playing time.
Having fallen out with players such as Samuel Eto’o and Zlatan Ibrahimovic at previous stages of his coaching career, the situation concerning Aguero, as Sagna mentioned, ultimately ended in a positive way as the striker went on to score 124 goals in 182 appearances under the 52-year-old.
In terms of being a demanding and dedicated manager, the significant number of trophies that the Spaniard has won during his tenure at the Etihad shows that his work ethic and management style have been big factors in seeing the Citizens win as much silverware as they have done.
