Jesus: Guardiola's tinkering made me cry, forced me to leave Man City
Gabriel Jesus revealed Pep Guardiola's tactical maneuvering ahead of Manchester City's clash with Paris Saint-Germain in November 2021 was the last straw that eventually led to his departure to Arsenal the following summer.
Jesus said he broke down in tears following his surprise omission from Guardiola's starting lineup.
"There was a Champions League game, PSG, at home, in which he put (Oleksandr) Zinchenko as a false nine. Crazy thing," Jesus said on the "Denilson Show," as translated by ESPN's Adrian Garcia. "The day before, he didn't even use him in training, he had put me in as a striker ... Zinchenko even joked with me: 'That day I felt bad for you.'
"Two hours before the game, there's a team talk, the team eats, rests for 30 minutes and goes to the game. He told us. ... I didn't even eat. I went straight to the room, crying, I called my mother to talk: 'I want to leave.' I'm going home because he put (Zinchenko) on, and he didn't put me on. He put a left-back there. I went crazy."
With Manchester City trailing 1-0 in the second half of the group stage game, Guardiola replaced Zinchenko with Jesus, who responded with an influential performance in the Premier League club's victory. But it wasn't enough to earn him a starting place in the next Champions League fixture.
"I didn't warm up," Jesus said. "I felt bad. Five minutes after (Kylian) Mbappe scored the goal for 1-0, (Guardiola) called me. I gave an assist and scored; we turned it around 2-1. In the next (Champions League) game (a 2-1 win at RB Leipzig), I thought I was going to play, and I didn't play.
"There was a lot of that with (Guardiola), and it's not easy. But one evolves. It is really hard. That's when I decided I didn't want to stay anymore."
Jesus ended his five-year spell at City when he joined Arsenal in July 2022 - weeks before Zinchenko followed to north London. The two went on to play important roles in the Gunners' unexpected second-place finish in the Premier League.