Matheus Nunes has recalled the emotional day the Catalan confirmed his Manchester City departure and has set the record straight on the Catalan’s most famous criticism of him.
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Speaking to The Athletic during City’s pre-season tour of South Korea, the Portugal international reflected on the influence of the man who oversaw both his difficult start at the club and his eventual transformation into one of its most important players.
Few moments appear to have hit harder than the day Guardiola gathered his squad together to confirm he was stepping down, marking the occasion by showing the group a video montage of his decade in charge - a reel of the highs, his dressing-room speeches and private conversations captured by the club’s videographers.
“It was unexpected,” Nunes said. “We thought there was a chance of him leaving, but until he actually says it you don’t know if it’s going to happen.
"He spoke to us in the auditorium, and it was a very emotional day. A lot of people were crying. It’s very hard to say goodbye to someone who gave so much to us all.”
After a 5-0 win vs Sporting Lisbon in February 2022, Pep Guardiola described opposing player Matheus Nunes as ‘one of the best players in the world today’.cityxtra.co.ukHow Matheus Nunes went from Manchester City headache to Enzo Maresca's right-back solution
After a 5-0 win vs Sporting Lisbon in February 2022, Pep Guardiola described opposing player Matheus Nunes as ‘one of the best players in the world today’.
The full weight of the decision, the 28-year-old said, only truly sunk in as those images flickered across the screen. For a player who has known no other manager since arriving in Manchester, the prospect of life without Guardiola was a difficult one to process.
“I’ve never been in the club without him,” he said. “I remember that day, when you start to see everything on the screen, it becomes real that he is leaving. It didn’t seem real. It felt weird and awkward to actually have to believe it.”
Nunes sets record straight on Guardiola’s ‘not clever enough’ comment
The relationship was not always so warm, however. Guardiola was capable of strikingly blunt public assessments of his player, none more infamous than his suggestion that Nunes was “not clever enough with the composure” to operate in central midfield. However, the defender is adamant the remark was misunderstood.
“He didn’t mean it that way,” Nunes added. “He spoke to me the day after. He said that’s not what he meant. What he told me was that in small spaces - like Bernardo [Silva], for example - he felt like I was not that clean sometimes. It’s not like I was not smart enough. He said he would never say something like that.
Matheus Nunes has opened up about his initial resistance to reinventing himself as a right-back at Manchester City, admitting he spent months denying he could play the role before a change of mindset transformed his career.cityxtra.co.uk“No, No, No” - Matheus Nunes Lifts Lid on Reluctant Man City Position Transformation
Matheus Nunes has opened up about his initial resistance to reinventing himself as a right-back at Manchester City, admitting he spent months denying he could play the role before a change of mindset transformed his career.
“But I don’t think a player who’s not smart would be able to play as many different positions as I did, and play well.”
How Guardiola’s belief transformed Nunes
For all the occasional tough love, it was ultimately Guardiola’s conviction that Nunes could reinvent himself at right-back that reshaped his career.
The Catalan had famously labelled the midfielder one of the best players in the world after coming up against his Sporting Lisbon side in 2021 - a verdict he later laughed off with a blunt “he is not” - before declaring in April that the Portuguese was becoming one of the finest full-backs on the planet.
That the praise arrived at all, Nunes believes, was a direct product of the faith his manager showed in him during the leanest of times.
Manchester City star Matheus Nunes has reflected on his first two-and-a-half seasons at the Etihad Stadium after reaching the 100 appearance milestone for the club.cityxtra.co.ukMatheus Nunes assesses Manchester City stay after January transfer talk
Manchester City star Matheus Nunes has reflected on his first two-and-a-half seasons at the Etihad Stadium after reaching the 100 appearance milestone for the club.
“Honestly, if I didn’t change my mindset, I would never have played good there and he would never have said stuff like that,” he reflected.
“He probably said that because he started to see what others couldn’t see, which was that I can actually do the role - and not just do the role but do the role very good.”
Guardiola has now brought the curtain down on a trophy-laden decade at the Etihad Stadium, with his former assistant Enzo Maresca charged with the unenviable task of succeeding him.
For Nunes - once a reluctant convert, now a firm believer in the vision his old boss had for him - a new chapter begins without the man who came to define his Manchester City journey.