5 footballers who were not preferred by Pep Guardiola

#5. Alexsandr Hleb

Alexsandr Hleb is one of many Arsenal stars to have made a direct move to Barcelona and like some of the others who made this move, Hleb too didn’t have a memorable time at the Nou Camp.

Hleb was signed in 2008 when Guardiola was appointed as the club’s manager. His fate at the club was evident from Guardiola’s early days as the Belarusian was rarely used by the manager. In March 2009, Hleb said that he doesn’t want to waste the best years of his career on the bench after starting just five La Liga games at that point. His little outburst didn’t have any impact as Guardiola continued to treat the player in the same manner.

At the end of the season, he made just 17 starts for the club and made 15 further appearances as a substitute in all competitions. He spent the next two seasons on loan before he was released in 2011.

Hleb clearly isn’t a fan of Guardiola and went on to say that the Spaniard is not the best manager in the world and the best managers are Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho.