Gerard Deulofeu praised his former manager Pep Guardiola ahead of this weekend’s match-up between Manchester City and Everton. The Spaniard was handed his Barcelona debut by Pep at the age of eighteen, but was never able to succeed in Catalonia due to his position being filled by a certain Lionel Messi. He moved to England and signed a permanent deal with the Toffees just recently, and will hope to make a bigger mark in England.

Deulofeu still remembers the impact Pep made in his career, though, and will always have good memories from his time at Barça thanks to Guardiola's guidance.

“I have good memories because I stayed a long time in my career at Barcelona and Pep gave me my debut in [Spain’s] first division. He is a big manager but this weekend we need to take three points from him.” “When I had the chance to train with Guardiola, I was seventeen or eighteen years old. I was very young, but I remember that after training, Pep would talk to me about things to improve my football. He would show me actions and movements in defense because when i was seventeen or eighteen I would always think about attack.” Source: EvertonTV via FourFourTwo

This shows us a lot about Pep. While none of this comes as a surprise, it is still amazing how fantastic he is with player management. He will connect with each individual player to help them improve their football, and that will make the squad stronger in each area of the pitch.

Deulofeu seems to be raring to go for this weekends clash, and City will need to be wary of this strong Everton side. Both squads will need to be at their very best to get a result. We could be in for a fantastic ninety minutes of football.

City and Everton will meet at the Etihad on Saturday in what promises to be a very good Premier League match.