Revealed: Pep Guardiola once left out Manchester City legend for being 'fat'

Pep Guardiola's strict rules around the Manchester City squad's fitness levels once deemed Sergio Aguero too ‘fat’ to play for the Premier League Champions, it has been revealed.

Manchester City's all-time leading goal scorer has been discussing his time in the Premier League on popular Spanish TV show, El Chiringuito’s live stream.

Pep Guardiola has enjoyed success wherever he has coached, and his rich success at City has seen him win four Premier League titles, with part of that down to his uncompromising demands.

One of those has been seemingly not allowing his players to be over a certain weight limit.

“If your ideal weight is 79-80 kilograms, and you were 80.1 kilograms, you would be fined, and you don’t play,” club legend Sergio Aguero told El Chiringuito.

“But it can happen. You come across a little bit of chicken for example, then you are going to be 50 grams over!”

The Argentine striker left Manchester City after becoming the fifth-highest all-time goal scorer in the Premier League era with 184 goals, so it begs the question as to why Pep Guardiola benched the Argentine should he have been just 100 grams over the strict limit?

Aguero continued, “Well, the first season we were between fourth and third and he said; 'I left you out because you turned up fat this week'.

"And what was I going to say? He was right.

"These things happen. He said it in a good way and at this time I did not really have his confidence.

"But I was always very respectful to the coaches.”

At the start of Pep Guardiola’s reign at Manchester City, both he and Sergio Aguero did not appear to see eye-to-eye in the style of play they were both trying to adopt.

When the Catalan manager arrived at City, changing the way Aguero pressed defenders was key to his plans and how he wanted the team to play.

But Sergio Aguero seemed to struggle to adapt to the style of play.

Aguero

“When I arrived, Guardiola asked me to press the centre backs a lot, and then I did not have enough oxygen to attack,” he added.

“I wasn’t used to pressing but Guardiola taught me the way to do it.”

After 10 years at the Etihad stadium, the Argentine striker left the club to join La Liga giants Barcelona, where he retired soon after, as he was diagnosed with cardiac arrhythmia - an irregular heartbeat.

Sergio Aguero will be fondly remembered by Manchester City fans for his 93rd minute winner against QPR in 2011, which moved the club above rivals Manchester United in the Premier League table on the final day of the season, securing their first league title in 44 years.