Pep Guardiola Forbids Manchester City Players From Eating Pizza

The Pep Guardiola era is off to a fun start at Manchester City. The renowned coach is in his first month of training and he's already set a few (odious?) rules. One of which might be a bit cruel, the other makes a lot of sense.

Guardiola has banned pizza for his players, which seems a bit much. Pizza is a great source of carbohydrates, digestible fats, which doesn't seem too terrible for a soccer player's diet. And if you're thinking "How good can the pizza in Manchester be?" — well apparently, pretty good. Manchester is a pizza hotspot, who knew.

But Guardiola's larger point obviously makes sense. He reportedly doesn't want unfit players on the pitch, banning them if they are overweight. He runs a regimented system that demands high energy and intense athleticism.

"With him, if you're weight is too high, you're not training with the team," Gael Clichy said. "So we have a few players who are not training with the team yet. We play football and you have to take responsibility for what you do on the field. You have to know that if your weight is 60 kilos [9st 6lb] and you are on 70 kilos [11st] then you cannot play because you're going to get injured and get your team in trouble. That's important.

"He has also cut out some juices and, of course, pizza and all the heavy food is not allowed. Some people think 'that's normal, it should be like this' but in truth it's not always like this and I know because I've been playing football for a long time. It's really refreshing and very exciting. He just wants us to trust him, he wants to trust us and I think it's the right way to start a relationship."

So his players seem not to mind it. And Guardiola has been pointed and animated about his demands in the past. But he did come out the next day — maybe a little bit of self-preservation here — and wanted to make sure everyone knew he doesn't have any overweight players on City, just that he's extremely demanding.

"They were not overweight but I want my players fit," Guardiola said. "For me, the weight is so, so important. We need to run, to fight, to jump — to have the ball, after three days, then another three days, then another three days. When you are not fit, that's when the injuries come."

Honestly, who knows where this is all leading to at this point. City doesn't start its season for another few weeks so we won't really be able to tell what's what until then. And if Guardiola brings a few trophies to Manchester at the end of the season then this will just be a comical blip. Or maybe it's just the beginning of a rocky first season for Guardiola. Either way, you know Jose Mourinho is already workshopping jokes about this for the first Manchester derby.