As the festive season descends upon England, a land where Christmas tradition is sacrosanct, the relentless engine of the Premier League title race does not pause.
At the heart of this conflict between celebration and competition stands Pep Guardiola, the architect of Manchester City’s modern dynasty, who has issued a characteristically meticulous and uncompromising directive to his squad: enjoy the holiday, but return without a single extra kilogram.
Following his team’s commanding 3-0 victory over West Ham United, which extended their winning streak to seven matches, Guardiola revealed a regimen of strict physiological monitoring, warning that any player deemed to have returned “fatty” from the short break would be immediately excluded from the crucial away fixture at Nottingham Forest.
The Catalan coach disclosed that every member of his star-studded squad was weighed at the City Football Academy on Friday, December 19th, establishing a precise physical benchmark. Upon their return to training on Christmas Day itself, a highly unusual session in itself, each player will step onto the scales again under Guardiola’s watchful eye. “I will be there controlling how many kilos come up,” Guardiola stated bluntly in his post-match press conference.
He framed this ultimatum not as a punitive measure, but as a non-negotiable element of professional preparation. “They can eat, but I want to control them. I have to make a selection on the 27th against Nottingham Forest,” he explained. “Imagine one player, now he’s perfect but he will arrive with three kilos more. He will [stay] in Manchester. He will not travel to Nottingham Forest, that’s for sure.”
This focus on dietary discipline underscores Guardiola’s legendary attention to detail, a philosophy where peak physical conditioning is the foundational platform for his team’s technical and tactical excellence.
Paradoxically, woven into this narrative of strict control is Guardiola’s equally firm belief in the necessity of mental respite. In a revealing contrast, he insisted that the three-day break was vital for his players to disconnect entirely from football. “I’ve learned from England, since I arrived, as much days as you can give [the players] off, give them. The schedule is so tight,” he reflected. “They have to forget and arrive in the moment be fresh here (in the mind) and in the legs. That’s why they have to recover and they have to forget football.”
He even joked about the psychological relief his absence would provide, noting, “For them to see the manager every day, it’s so tough.” This philosophy creates a fascinating dual mandate for his players: a command to psychologically switch off, coupled with a biological command to remain precisely the same.
The shadow of precedent looms large over Guardiola’s warning. The manager has a documented history of enforcing these standards with an iron fist. Most notably, England midfielder Kalvin Phillips faced public criticism and a period out of favour after returning from a post-World Cup break in 2022 above his target weight.
This historical context transforms Guardiola’s words from a mere threat into a promise with a proven track record of enforcement. It is a clear signal to both established stars and new signings that the demands at the Etihad are perpetual and exempt from festive leniency.
Guardiola himself acknowledged the challenge, stating, “The players were not in the right position. If they were, we could create more. In part, it’s because maybe they are new… but at that level, they have to do it,” further emphasising that no aspect of performance, from positioning to physique, is immune from his exacting scrutiny.
This philosophy of targeted rest extends intriguingly to the manager himself. While his players navigate their Christmas dinners under the spectre of the scale, Guardiola plans to spend his short break in Barcelona with his 94-year-old father, Valenti, indulging in the very pleasures he asks his squad to moderate. “Tomorrow I will go to Barcelona and I recommend you come there. The food is top,” he told reporters with a smile, before adding, “I will be with my family and with champagne.”
The immediate sporting context gives Guardiola’s “fatty” warning its sharpest edge. With City sitting just two points behind league leaders Arsenal, the trip to Nottingham Forest represents a critical moment in a tense title race.
Guardiola pointed to the immense work rate displayed against West Ham as the gold standard, a product of their supreme fitness. He singled out Phil Foden and Erling Haaland for particular praise, the latter having scored a brace in the victory. “The problem is not running. One of the attributes of my teams since I started in the Barcelona B team until now is that we run like an animal,” Guardiola said, before adding a crucial caveat that defines his perpetual drive for improvement: “But it’s not enough. We have to play better.”