5 big name players who were axed by Pep Guardiola

#1 Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Zlatan was never favored by Guardiola at Barcelona and was sold after one season

Zlatan Ibrahimovic may be enjoying his time at his new club Manchester United but the Swedish striker has had his share of a bad phase under Pep Guardiola at Barcelona.

The 34-year old was bought by the Catalans in the year 2009 from Inter Milan after the Italian club wanted Barca's striker Eto’o, who had scored 36 goals in the treble-winning 2008/09 season for Barcelona.

The deal meant that Barcelona had paid a large sum of money and Eto’o to secure the services of Zlatan. However, it was reported that Guardiola was never in support of the acquisition of the striker by Barcelona’s ex-president. The manager did not like his new striker’s attitude and it was known that the duo did not have an eye to eye relationship at the Nou Camp.

Guardiola would keep the Swedish striker on the bench for most of the season and would play him as a substitute in the entire season. But the striker did not disappoint even as a substitute as he managed to score 22 goals from 46 appearances.

Guardiola was quick to offload the striker to AC Milan on a season-long loan as soon as the season concluded which eventually materialized into a permanent transfer.