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Gabriel Jesus reveals the moment he decided to leave Man City

2023-07-07 18:20
Gabriel Jesus reveals the exact moment he knew he wanted to leave Manchester City - because of something Pep Guardiola did.
Gabriel Jesus reveals the moment he decided to leave Man City

Gabriel Jesus has revealed a snub by Pep Guardiola for a Champions League game against Paris Saint-Germain that left him 'crazy' and in tears was the moment he knew he wanted to leave the club, going on to join Arsenal in a £45m transfer seven months later.

PSG made the trip to the Etihad Stadium in November 2021 for a group stage clash with Jesus expecting to start after being used as the main striker in training the day before. However, Guardiola ending up selecting Oleksandr Zinchenko as a false nine.

The City boss has gained a reputation over the years for making what seem like bizarre tactical choices in a bid to out-think his opposite number. That one was particularly sore for Jesus.

"There was a Champions League game, PSG, at home, in which he put Zinchenko as a false nine. Crazy thing," Jesus explained during an appearance on The Denilson Show.

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"The day before, he didn't even use [Zinchenko] 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 the team, 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."

Jesus also admitted he didn't even warm-up but was soon called on after Kylian Mbappe had given PSG a lead shortly after half-time. Within minutes of coming on, the Brazilian had assisted an equaliser for Raheem Sterling and then scored the winning goal himself.

"I gave an assist and scored; we turned it around 2-1. In the next [Champions League] game [against 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. It's really hard. That's when I decided to leave...I didn't want to stay anymore."

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On this week's edition of Talking Transfers, part of the 90min podcast network, Scott Saunders is joined by Toby Cudworth, Graeme Bailey and Sean Walsh to discuss Man Utd's priorities after agreeing a deal for Mason Mount, the latest on Arsenal's move for Declan Rice, Tottenham's targets and more!

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This article was originally published on 90min as Gabriel Jesus reveals the moment he decided to leave Man City.