Josko Gvardiol won’t make his debut for Manchester City in the Community Shield against Arsenal, according to the Manchester Evening News.
At the time of writing, the Croatian’s £77m move to the Etihad has not been officially announced but, even if the deal has been finalised, MEN claim the defender won’t be in the squad for the game at Wembley on Sunday evening.
Fans on X are slightly surprised that Gvardiol won’t be considered for the game even though he played for RB Leipzig during pre-season:
NOOOOOO
— _UNDERBASS 👽 (@TheUnderbass) August 4, 2023
— Stanley Merkel (@BAT_MAN42) August 4, 2023
that's pretty obvious
he's joins officially on Saturday he can't play on Sunday without training with the team, plus I'm sure Pep already has a laid out plan for Sunday— 🔸corleone🔸 (@C0RL7) August 4, 2023
NOOOOOOOOO
— HA HA HAALAND (@Haaland2MCI) August 4, 2023
Fair enough, he has to train with the players as well, sure the players will train today, rest tomorrow before the game on Sunday so it would be stressful having a medical, contract signing, media duties for announcement and then train as well
— Emerald (@Emerald_mf) August 4, 2023
That’s not nice
— 𝕁𝕠š𝕜𝕠ℝ𝕠𝕝𝕖 (@JoskoRole) August 4, 2023
Whyy
— Khushan Kanakrai (@khushan_pro) August 4, 2023
The Burnley game will be the focus for Gvardiol
While manager Pep Guardiola may not admit to it, the Spaniard does generally treat the Community Shield as a glorified friendly so there was never any chance that he would rush Gvardiol into making his debut this weekend.
With the best part of a week left to go before the first Premier League fixture of the season against Burnley, Gvardiol will be afforded the time to get up to speed in training before being selected in the matchday squad for the trip to Turf Moor.
City are likely to sign more players before the transfer deadline
It does look like Gvardiol won’t be the only signing brought in this month either. In his pre-match press conference on Friday afternoon, Guardiola hinted that more recruits are likely.
“I don’t know if we are finished in the transfer market, still some more I think.”
One of those could be Crystal Palace’s Michael Olise. Reports in Italy suggest that the treble winners may well trigger the Frenchman’s £35m release clause. It’s unusual for City to be so active in the transfer market with the league campaign about to kick off but sometimes deals take longer than expected.
