Kyle Walker has revealed how Pep Guardiola convinced him to join Manchester City.
The defender spent eight years at the Etihad Stadium after signing from Tottenham Hotspur in 2017 for £53million.
5
During his time with City, Walker made 319 appearances under Guardiola as well as winning 17 trophies.
Those included six Premier League titles, the Champions League and the Club World Cup.
Guardiola will depart the club after 10 years at the end of the season.
The Spaniard’s final game in charge will be at home to Aston Villa on Sunday.
Walker on Guardiola
Ahead of his exit, Walker has recalled his first interaction with the legendary City boss.
Speaking exclusively to talkSPORT, the former England international explained: “Obviously I had a decent couple of seasons at Tottenham, me and Danny Rose as wing-backs.
“It was kind of like, I know that Tottenham kind of said to us it was either one or the other can go and my agent had the tough decision to make because he had both of us.
“But I know [Kieran] Trippier was kind of on my tail at Tottenham and I think that they kind of thought that he would be the right replacement for me.
“So, I think that just opened the door to make it a little bit easier for me to go to Man City.
“But I was in Portugal, actually, I was playing golf, I came back from a round and he gave me a call and he just said, ‘I’d really like you to be on my team.’
5
“And [I was] shivering on the phone, I’m walking up and down the garden at the place that we were staying in.
“As soon as I think someone calls you like that to take the time out and the effort to call you and make sure that he wants you on their team come the new season, it was a no-brainer then.”
Walker’s training headache
Walker left City last summer, joining Burnley after spending the second half of the previous campaign on loan at AC Milan.
However, his adjustment to life at Turf Moor will likely have been easier than his early days under Guardiola.
When asked how long it took him to adjust to his style of play, the 35-year-old admitted: “I’d say probably two seasons.”
Walker added: “I reckon two seasons before I fully got what he wanted from the game of football.
5
“He always used to bring me into his office, show me different clips and everything like that, and he used to say, [Javier] Mascherano was the same at Barcelona, where he just didn’t get it, he just didn’t get it.
“And I was definitely one of them, I just didn’t get it, but what I was fortunate with, is that I played in the Premier League for a number of seasons, so I knew the teams that we were playing against, but in training, I was a disaster.
“I just couldn’t get the pictures in my head of where the three-man was and it just wouldn’t set in.
“It wouldn’t set in and obviously my physicality would then get me through the training sessions, run around, smash a few people.
“I relied on my pace a lot, and then the game was just like a walk, not a walk in the park, but it became natural then.
“But the training sessions, when he did certain practices, I was like, ‘Oh, not this again, not this again,’ because I just struggled.
5
“He told me I struggled in the training sessions, on certain ones, I wasn’t completely awful in them.
“So if you think I’ve gone from training with Harry Redknapp and [Mauricio] Pochettino, which is very physical, normal standard with Harry.
“You’ve got 7v7 with a floater and the floater is the spare man, but Pep Guardiola, he doesn’t like to just do that, he’ll put you in position.
“So you’re playing in position from the possession, so you’ve got your back four, your wingers on the side of you and your centre-forwards at the top.
“And then all the midfielders were in the middle, but once you lose the ball, you’d have to then obviously try and retrieve the ball from that inside going out.
“And I just couldn’t get it, it was just like people were running at me in all different directions, like, ‘Well, he’s come from there, he must be free,’ and it just wouldn’t register.
5
“But then you look at Gundo [Ilkay Gundogan] or Bernardo Silva, it was like a walk in the park for them.
“But my theory was that they were playing in the middle, so they always had the outside pass, that was my theory, I was boxed in the corner.
“Me and Danilo were boxed in the corner, it was like me vs him, but I feel that I wouldn’t be the player that I am today, I wouldn’t know the game of football, look at the game of football if it wasn’t for him.”
Walker won the Premier League in each of his first two seasons with City, despite struggling in training.
Those victories are amongst 20 trophies won by Guardiola since he arrived at the club in 2016.
As well as guiding City to four successive league titles, he also won an historic treble during the 2022/23 season.