Pep Guardiola expects to see the benefits from Manchester City players who were granted an extra week of holiday this summer.
With a manager who regularly bemoans the burden placed on stars in the modern era, the club took the decision to allow anyone who had featured in the European Championship or Copa America four weeks of rest afterwards rather than the recommended rest however far they progressed in the respective tournament.
Given England and Brazil both reached finals, that meant Kyle Walker, Ederson, Gabriel Jesus, John Stones and Raheem Sterling only linking up with the squad a week before they kicked off their Premier League campaign at Tottenham on Sunday, a game they looked underprepared for as they lost 1-0.
While Guardiola expects to be up against it for the remaining two games before the international break in terms of the readiness of his squad, the hope is that the extra holiday will pay off over the course of what is set to be another gruelling campaign. If any player is unable to find the verve and motivation to play, the manager made it clear that there are others who can and will be preferred in the team.
"[Fatigue] can happen. Today the seasons connect to other seasons, season by season, season by season, it is non-stop but we hope," he said.
"We train less because we gave our international English and Brazilian players one month and I don’t think other clubs give one months to those. We have to use it but if they are tired, they have to rest and another player is going to play.
"It is a short career. This is the reality, unfortunately. I can be a manager until 80 years old. They cannot be a player until 80 years. The guys who are 26 or 27, they have five or six years left playing football.
"My advice is use every day as best as possible to extend your career because after that you have the break if you want for one or two or three years."
