Aymeric Laporte has dismissed ’s claim that he does not want to keep unhappy players at .
Guardiola has allowed several key first-team players to leave City during his reign, including Joao Cancelo, and , who has impressed following his £42.5 million move to Chelsea last summer.
‘If any of these players are not satisfied, it is so simple,’ Guardiola said in 2021. ‘With their agents, go to the club and say, ‘I am not happy, I want to leave,’ and we are going to find a solution. I am pretty sure of that. We want committed and happy people to be here.’
Laporte was another who Guardiola gave the green light to leave City as the 29-year-old joined Saudi Pro League side Al-Nassr last August.
During an interview with , Laporte was asked about Guardiola’s frequent claim that the door is always open for unhappy players to move on from City.
‘That’s what he usually says,’ Laporte replied.
‘For several players it wasn’t like that but I’m not going to go into those type of things.
‘I decided to leave and I was able to leave. That’s it.’
Laporte also admitted he was ‘frustrated’ by Guardiola’s decision to play him as a left-back for City.
‘I also made that decision for the moment, I think it was the right one, due to life circumstances and also because of my situation at City,’
‘I had been playing there for a long time, I had achieved almost everything and I had been playing for two years in a place that was not the position that I did not want to play.
‘When a year, two years goes by and you do not play in the ideal place for you, it is a little frustrating because you do not show the best of yourself.
‘You can make whatever efforts. I was used to playing centre-back and not so much on the wing. It’s not exactly the ideal position for me.
‘In addition, they signed many other centre-backs during the last three years of my time at City and it was time to leave and not stay.
‘I wasn’t quite a starter either, I wanted play all the games, I am very young or young. I simply wanted to play more.
‘In Europe there were options, but it was not what could fulfill me the most and I decided to move on to something else, disconnect from here a little, change of scenery and maybe come back with more strength.’
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