- Colin Cranmer
"Sergio Gomez is ready for Newcastle" - Pep Guardiola pre Newcastle Press Conference
Pep Guardiola gives updates on Kalvin Phillips and Cole Palmer, as well as Sergio Gomez's availability ahead of travelling to St James Park this Sunday. The boss also talks the mid season friendly in Barcelona next week, the four point gap over Liverpool, and Newcastle's situation.
Cole Palmer and Kalvin Phillips:
"Cole [Palmer] is back. Kalvin [Phillips] is back. Some niggles but everyone is okay."
Sergio Gomez availability:
"Yes [he's ready]. I think so [in the squad for Newcastle]."
More on Sergio Gomez:
"So good, so far - no complaints. He is settling into the department, his mood is exceptional and he is starting to know us."
Bernardo Silva:
"He's our player. He knows our wishes, me as a manager and even his mates. What is going to happen? I don't know."
Liverpool have dropped four points:
"It's very early days. I'm sorry but after two fixtures we can not make any plans about the future. We play Newcastle [on Sunday]. Respect to all the other teams we will try to improve our game and win the game."
"After two games [four point gap is big]? Yeah, yeah, just 111 points to play for."
"Liverpool is not my business. This is Manchester City."
City performing ahead of Pep's expectations?
"The three weeks were good, good long weeks of training. In September that [being perfect] is not going to happen. We have to improve our principles, our game. The last two games were really good and at some points unexpected. The players prove to me again how wrong I was."
Pleased with goals or clean sheets?
"Both."
Newcastle:
"Their numbers and style of play speaks for itself. He arrived in a difficult position last season, when the owners took over he went on an incredible run of games. Our first game after [Real] Madrid defeat, they were already safe in the Premier League and it was tough. With just four games left in the Premier League - and we gave everything. I watched the game again the other day and we struggled for the second balls, it shows how aggressive they are..."
"Newcastle away is an incredible environment."
"What happened in the past is the past. If you’ve had bad results in the past it means nothing. Newcastle is a project not just for one or two seasons. We’ve seen in this window everyone spends a lot. I think they are here to stay here."
"Nobody has the secret to success in world football. Not even [Manchester] City. One of the good things this club has is that we’re aligned with the hierarchy, the way we wanna play and the players we buy. It doesn’t mean that having the same idea means success, for many reasons."
"You don't have to ask me [about Newcastle's spending], I don't know. I have never bought a player, I have never sold a player. It's the club's money. All I know is that when a club spend money then people go crazy and then when they don’t, people ask why haven’t they spent money..."
"I think what they have done is because they believe it's the best. In the winter window they bought players because they were in trouble, then they got a lot of good results."
Erling Haaland:
"We are delighted with Erling [Haaland]. It's just a question of time, making connections. Games, games, games."
City play Barcelona in a friendly next Wednesday:
"[We will be] coming back [on] Thursday."
"We will be together for a few days, our chairman will be there with us for three days. There is time to train and recover in a good environment and we go because Barcelona opened their doors to make a game for an important person in our lives - he was a keeper for Spain and Barcelona and my assistant there, who is having an incredibly difficult time - and they invited us to raise money for a battle that he has for his [ALS] disease. It's an incredible argument to be there and for us to play in Camp Nou is incredibly important - a big stage and a big team. It will be perfect and we will come back here on Thursday, recover, see the draw for the Champions League [group stage] and prepare for the Crystal Palace game."
"He [Khaldoon Al Mubarak] will come, our CEO [Ferran Soriano] and people will be there together with our staff. We will talk, laugh, train, have a good game against Barcelona - it never looks like a friendly game when you play Barcelona. We will be together and the facilities we are in here [CFA] for eleven months - [facilities] are exceptional but at the same time sometimes a change is good. It is the last time we have a long week and then after [every] three days we have a game."
"The players who do not play at Newcastle, or John [Stones], are going to play. But the guys who played the last two games are going to as well. The best way to take the confidence is playing games. After September, every three days, everyone is going to play..."
"Me [playing]? I don't think so. I would love it."
Transfer window done?
"Apparently, yeah. [Unless] if someone move or if there's a problem we don't expect."
Written by: @coIgcra
Some quotes as quoted by Manchester Evening News and Manchester City.
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