Pep: We may miss out on CL

Pep Guardiola has warned that Manchester City could miss out on Champions League qualification this season as he tries to overhaul the club's ageing squad.

The Citizens have a chance to climb back into the top four places on Sunday when a draw against Swansea at the Etihad Stadium would see them leapfrog Liverpool into fourth position.

However, the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach believes the process of lowering the average age of one of the league's oldest squads will take time and could leave them outside the top four this campaign.

“It is possible that we won’t qualify,” he said. “Today we are not in the Champions League [qualification positions].

“But we are going to see at the end of the season and then you will see my impression. Let us fight until the end. Let me try at least that – fight.

"We realise that we have a lot of players over 30. For example, full-backs are 31, 32.

“But they are so important. We cannot change absolutely everything in one season. I can understand how important Yaya [Toure], [Aleksandr] Kolarov or Gael [Clichy] are, or the personality from Pablo [Zabaleta], in the locker room.

“At the end, the heart and soul of the team are the old players, the people who know the club.

“Sooner or later of course the process is going to change. I think the situation is starting but it cannot be possible to do that for eight, nine players.

“It is impossible because every player costs £45-50million and it is not good to change seven, eight or nine players."

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