Pep Guardiola is considered by many to be the greatest coach in the history of football, winning titles wherever he went in addition to establishing his signature style of football. However, not all players who have had the Catalan as their commander admire him.
In an interview with the ZACK channel, Yaya Touré, who worked with Guardiola at Barcelona and Manchester City, had harsh words for his former coach.
During the conversation, Touré recalled the first disagreements he had with Guardiola at Barcelona, in 2010, when the coach decided to reduce the Ivorian’s role in the team to promote the young Sergio Busquets.
As a result, Touré ended up leaving Barcelona to join City. The midfielder recalled that, before signing with the English team, he was approached by Guardiola to stay in Spain.
— He calls me and says he wants me to stay. My wife said to me, ‘Are you going to listen to this? He treated you like dirt all year. Now he wants you to stay? Let’s go to Manchester – he revealed.
— The guy didn’t select me all year and, at the end of the year, I shined in the World Cup (2010) and he brought me back to Barcelona. My wife said about him: ‘Sheytan (demon), he is not a man, he is evil – he continued.
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“I don’t see a man; I see a snake 🐍😳”
🤯YAYA TOURÉ 🇨🇮 destroys Pep Guardiola: “The Barcelona coach calls me at the time and says, ‘You have to come back, it’s important.’
My wife tells me: ‘You’re really going to listen to that nonsense? He humiliated you, and now he wants… pic.twitter.com/A67PjVIIaM
— Olt Sports (@oltsport_) December 4, 2025
Reunion at Manchester City
Playing in England, Touré regained prominence and became an idol for Manchester City, helping the club win its most important titles in its new phase.
The joy, however, would end again in 2016, with Guardiola’s arrival at the Etihad. Just as happened at Barcelona, Touré would once again lose space with Pep, a friction that intensified after Dimitri Seluk, the Ivorian’s agent, publicly criticized the coach.
Touré apologized, but the relationship was never the same. In 2018, Yaya left Manchester City.
— I don’t see a man, I see a snake — Touré said about Guardiola at a certain point in the interview.
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Guardiola x Ibrahimovic
The fight with Yaya Touré is not the only one nor the most famous between Guardiola and a player. Also at Barcelona, the coach and Zlatan Ibrahimovic had their differences when Pep moved the Swede in position to use Lionel Messi in a more centralized position.
— I scored a lot of goals in my first six months and won two Super Cups. The first six months were perfect. After that, we changed the system and tactics, and that wasn’t good for me. So, the club told me to talk to Guardiola, and I told Guardiola that he had sacrificed the other players for Messi. He said he understood me. Then he benched me in the next game, then the next and the next. I thought, “He solved the problem really well.” Afterwards, he didn’t talk to me or even look at me — he recalled.
