'He has done a lot of harm' - Fabio Capello blasts 'arrogant' Pep Guardiola & accuses Man City boss of 'making many people flee from football'

Guardiola is enduring his worst year yet as Manchester City boss in the 2024-25 campaign as the reigning English champions have dropped to fifth in the league table and are now merely fighting for a Champions League slot. They have also exited the Champions League as for the first time under the Catalan manager's tutelage, the Cityzens failed to reach the knockout stage.

Amid a terrible campaign with City, Guardiola has now faced criticism from ex-England and Real Madrid manager Capello, who had him on his playing squad at Roma in 2002-03. Capello told El Mundo: "We didn’t discuss anything [at AS Roma]. He came to tell me how I should do my job and I told him: ‘Go for a run and then you can talk’. It’s just that he was walking around the pitch and I wasn’t going to eliminate him in front of people who had a lot better things than him. That was the end of the debate.

"You know what I don’t like about Guardiola? His arrogance. The Champions League he won with City is the only one where he didn’t try anything funny in the decisive matches. But all the other years, in Manchester and Munich, on key days, he always wanted to be the protagonist. He would change things and invent them so he could say: ‘It’s not the players who win, it’s me’. And that arrogance cost him several Champions Leagues. I respect him, but for me, it’s clear."

The Italian coach added: "Besides, even if it is no longer his fault, he has done a lot of harm to football. Because everyone spent ten years trying to copy him. It ruined Italian football, which lost its nature. I said: 'Stop, you don't have Guardiola's players'! There was also the absurd idea that that was all there was to do to play well.

"A disaster and also a boredom that made many people flee from football, they only have to watch the highlights, why are you going to watch 90 minutes of passes and horizontal passes without fighting, without running...? Fortunately, football is changing. First of all, Spain changed it by winning the European Championship with two wingers and playing fast."

After a disappointing loss at Nottingham Forest last weekend, City will aim to get back to winning ways in the Premier League this Saturday as they take on Brighton.