Guardiola: Schedule is killing players

Nasri did not play at all in the friendlies against Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.

Angelino, 19 played another impressive 45 minutes in City’s International Champions Cup penalty shootout victory over Borussia Dortmund on Thursday.

About the same time the Everton squad were taking off for Germany, City manager Guardiola, out in China on the club’s pre-season tour, was asked about reports suggesting he was trying to sign the centre-back.

Guardiola will have two more friendlies, against St Johnstone in Manchester and Arsenal in Gothenburg next week, to prepare his team before City – who were flying home overnight from China – face Sunderland in their opening game of the new Premier League season on Aug 13.

“If he comes we’ll be happy, if he stays in Schalke I will be happy for the fans and for the Schalke club”, Guardiola explained, as quoted by ESPN.

While a deal is yet to be agreed, it is believed that City have opened talks with Everton over the 22-year-old defender, a player the Toffees value at around £50m in the current market.

And the new City boss said of Nasri: “He arrived a little bit overweight”. Everybody knows we want to buy him, but I don’t know what’s going to happen.

“The players that are on the pitch they are fit, their weight is in the right place to arrive at many minutes like Tosin today or like Fernandinho or like Kolarov and all the other ones”.

From Nasri’s perspective, it’s clearly positive that Guardiola has plans to use him this season, with the Spaniard also expected to continue to bolster his squad in the coming weeks. Now we know that Guardiola definitely wants them.

Defender Gael Clichy revealed on Wednesday that Guardiola had exiled some players from first-team training until they meet certain weight targets.

Chelsea boss Antonio Conte said: “I think that fatigue sometimes can bring a player to go too late”.