Pep Guardiola unhappy with Man City treatment for Newcastle game

Pep Guardiola hit out at the quick turnaround Manchester City are expected to perform after the Super Cup.

As a consequence of winning the Champions League, the Blues are in Athens in ten days to take on Sevilla in an annual fixture which pits the winners of the top two continental competitions up against each other.

Having already established themselves as the best team in Europe, Pep Guardiola’s side have the opportunity to add two further trophies to their name with this match and the Club World Cup in December.

However, City have not been helped by the decision to make them play a Premier League game at one of the earliest opportunities after the Super Cup. Newcastle visit the Etihad at 8pm on the Saturday after City’s game on the Wednesday.

The Premier League is under no obligation to help City out in another competition but an inflexible broadcast schedule feels more like a cost of success than a reward for what the Blues achieved last season.

There will be two games played on the Sunday and one on the Monday night, but as these are games are hosted by Sky Sports whereas City vs Newcastle was picked by TNT Sports – ironically the broadcaster of the Super Cup – the latest time offered to City was Saturday night.

Guardiola has already had to cope with a lack of training this summer as a result of hic club’s decision to tour countries where the weather conditions were unsuitable for proper work. As he tries to prepare for another successful season, the City boss sarcastically thanked the tight turnaround.

“We finish an incredibly stressful season, the players went to their national teams and had maybe not even three weeks [off],” he said. “We came back and trained a little in Manchester then trained to Asia and could not train there because it is impossible to train there.

“We played a decent game against Bayern and the other two matches, and after in a few days I saw incredible I saw that the guys are still here so we cannot complain. We have to recover well and prepare well [for] the game against Burnley and then travel to Athens to play at 10pm, finish at 2, then come back on Friday and after – thank you! – play on Saturday against Newcastle at home.