Manchester City right-back Pablo Zabaleta has suggested
he and his team-mates are expecting major changes when
Pep Guardiola takes over this summer.
Current City boss Manuel Pellegrini announced on Monday
that he will leave the club at the end of the current season,
with Guardiola swiftly confirmed as his replacement.
It is expected that the incoming coach, who has remodelled
Bayern Munich in his image over the past three years having
revolutionised Barcelona in his first senior role, will preside
over a significant overhaul of the City squad.
Several current first-teamers could leave this summer,
including Yaya Toure, Wilfried Bony, Jesus Navas, Fernando,
Aleksandar Kolarov and Eliaquim Mangala, while a host of
big-name players have been linked with the Etihad Stadium
in recent weeks.
Zabaleta admits that the City players are mindful that things
could look very different by the start of next season, but
insists they will not become distracted by the speculation.
Asked about Guardiola's impending arrival being made
public, he said: "We need to deal with it. The club decided to
announce this now after so many rumours, we really
understand this. Now it's just time to finish in the best way
we can do this season.
"We are all behind Manuel. He's been great for this football
club. So he'll continue in the way he has done for the last
few years. Nothing changes for him. And then we'll see at
the end of the season with the new manager coming in. We
suspect changes, it's normal, but now is not the right time
to talk about the future because there's a lot of time for
this."
Zabaleta was speaking after City were humbled by Premier
League leaders Leicester at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday,
a result which left Pellegrini's men six points off the pace.
The Blues have struggled against the division's top teams
this season, taking just three points - three draws - from
seven games against the other members of the current top
six, but Zabaleta has refused to entertain the idea that there
is any great significance behind that poor run of results.
"Every single game in this league is very hard," he said.
"Every game is played in the same way. Sometimes you can
win, sometimes you lose. Nothing mentally or nothing to talk
about not winning the big games."
The Argentine did bemoan the fact that City have played far
more games than Leicester in recent weeks, but says that
the club must accept that they are expected to win trophies.
Acknowledging the spate of injuries to have hit the squad in
recent weeks, he added: "I know it’s really hard but now all
we can do is be focused on the next games, we have
another huge game next week against Spurs so we have a
long week now to rest.
"In the last 10 days we’ve played two more games than
Leicester and obviously in the way we are playing at the
moment it’s hard, but we need to accept that we are Manchester City, we aspire to win as many trophies as we can and we’ll see at the end of the season."
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