Pep Guardiola reveals rejected chance to reschedule and switch Manchester City match to Thursday night | OneFootball

Manchester City rejected the chance to reschedule their upcoming Carabao Cup third round tie against Watford, and move the clash to the London club’s stadium.

The Premier League champions were drawn at home against the Championship club in the third round of the League Cup later this month, with decision makers hoping that it would avoid a clash with the club’s European schedule as well as those around them.

However, following the draw, it became very quickly apparent that due to Manchester United also playing at home in the UEFA Europa League in the same week, Manchester City would have no choice but to move their game due to opposition from Greater Manchester Police.

After several days of debate, the decision was taken to hand Manchester City the Tuesday night slot, meaning just one day will separate a top-level clash with Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium and the meeting with Tom Cleverley’s Hornets.

Speaking during a pre-match press conference on Friday afternoon, Pep Guardiola has revealed that both he and the club came to the decision to reject an approach by relevant authorities to reschedule their meeting with Watford to Vicarage Road.

“It’s going to happen in many, many cases. It’s going to happen many, many times this kind of situation for all the teams that play in all competitions,” Guardiola insisted following the controversial scheduling of the contest.

“They (football authorities) gave an alternative to play on Thursday (26 September) away in London (at Vicarage Road), to have more days (rest). But after we have a Saturday game in Newcastle and we prioritise, of course, to have more rest for Newcastle,” Guardiola revealed.

He continued, “And we’re going to play on Tuesday because we cannot play on Wednesday. Apparently it should be because United play Europa League and for the police it’s not accepted, but it’s going to happen many times. And when someone is going to create new competitions it will be even worse.”

The Manchester City manager went on to insist that this situation is impossible to fix, especially with more competitions and matches being revamped and created over time, despite urges from medical professionals over necessary rest for top-level athletes.

“It’s going to happen more and more, so it’s impossible to fix all the schedules and calendars and teams at home and away and everything. It’s normal that that happens,” Guardiola said.

“The people say, ‘Yeah with the players and managers with that money, they cannot complain’, it’s not about that it’s about the health. The doctors, especially, say that the body has to recover through at least four or five days.

“We did have three, and now it’s two. We will do our job anyway, with this salary or less salaries, we will do our job because we love to do it. It doesn’t matter. But we will play at night in the Champions League or not, against Arsenal on Sunday, and it’s not an easy game I would say, and after two days later we have to do it.

“And I would prefer to play at home because the draw was like this, rather than going on Thursday to London. I prefer my fans, our people, to watch this team, lovely team, adorable team at home.

“That’s why I decided to play on Tuesday, because on Thursday after that you have to recover, and after that you go to Newcastle.”

Manchester City return to their club duties after the latest international break by taking on Brentford at the Etihad Stadium, before the return of UEFA Champions League football arrives with the visit of Inter Milan to the north-west in midweek.