GARY NEVILLE slammed Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola for naming just six substitutes for their clash at Burnley.
Guardiola said he had no option but to be one short on the bench as : “We don’t have any more players” and that the City Under-23 team played at Swansea on Friday night.
But Neville labelled Guardiola’s decision as “a joke” and “really poor”, claiming it undermines the effort of youth team players and coaches at the club.
“I think it’s a joke, an absolute joke,” Neville said. “If you are a youth team manager at Manchester City, ring him up!
“Forget the second team – even if they played yesterday still put one on the bench – the youth team are there.
“Bring a kid, travel with the team, help the kitman, put him on the bench, have the experience of being in a Premier League game and give somebody a boost.
“If you are an academy manager or reserve-team manager at Manchester City you must think, ‘I’m wasting my time’.
“Forget how much money they’ve spent, six players on the bench is like a protest. I’m not sure why he is peddling this theme.
“He’s an absolutely incredible manager, the work he has done with this team is unbelievable and the performances absolutely outstanding.
“He doesn’t even have to bring the kid off the bench, he could just bring him for the experience.
“I just feel like the opportunity has been missed again to promote the wonderful youth team Man City have.”
When Neville refers to Guardiola making a “protest” and “peddling a theme,” he’s referring to the Catalan’s comments last week that City don’t have the money to buy £80m-plus players.
The club did break their transfer record last week to sign £57m Aymeric Laporte from Athletic Bilbao who, ironically, was on the bench, and were unsuccessful in a £65m-plus player bid for Leicester’s Rhiyad Mahrez.
Guardiola had Leroy Sane, Gabriel Jesus, John Stones, David Silva, Fabian Delph, Benjamin Mendy and youngster Phil Foden unavailable because of injury, and already had Tosin Adarabioyo, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Brahim Diaz among the substitutes.
Guardiola said: “We only named six players on the subs bench because we don’t have any more. That is the reason why!
“We could take one from the second team, but they had a game yesterday and I didn’t think it was worth taking one of them because it because he was unlikely he would play.”
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