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Guardiola has decision to make on Man City player after ‘absolute disaster’ claim [Opinion]

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Gabriel Agbonlahor pulled no punches when discussing Kevin De Bruyne to Football Insider, calling his World Cup campaign with Belgium an “absolute disaster” after they were knocked out at the group stage. He also believes Pep Guardiola will be happy having the 31-year-old back sooner than anticipated to play immediately when the domestic season resumes, however.

Guardiola has a decision to make though, as he won’t want to overwork his players that travelled to Qatar, even the ones that have extra time after being eliminated early. The City players that weren’t at the World Cup are currently training in Abu Dhabi with youngsters, but De Bruyne might be spared that trip.

He’ll need a rest after his excursions at the World Cup, not least mentally because Belgium were believed to have unrest in the camp that may have contributed to their failure. De Bruyne made comments about the high average age of the squad that didn’t go down well with teammates.

So while he’ll be happy to be back with City, the 31-year-old might need time to rest physically and mentally. Guardiola won’t have to prepare his team for a competitive game until December 22 when City are due to face Liverpool in the EFL Cup, so De Bruyne will have just shy of two weeks to recover.

In other news, Pep Guardiola will struggle to offload Jack Grealish despite claim that ‘they want to sell’

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He joined from Newcastle in 2000 and left to join FC Sochaux in 2003

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Sports journalist who is an avid football fan, enjoys debunking transfer rumours, loves to write pieces about players out in the cold and takes a large amount of pride getting a predicted XI 100% correct.