The Argentina right-back has already revealed he will sit down to discuss his future at the end of the season, and now suggests his team-mates are expecting an overhaul
Manchester City right-back Pablo Zabaleta has suggested he and his team-mates are expecting major changes when Pep Guardiola takes over this summer.
Current City boss Manuel Pellegrini announced on Monday that he will leave the club at the end of the current season, with Guardiola swiftly confirmed as his replacement.
It is expected that the incoming coach, who has remodelled Bayern Munich in his image over the past three years having revolutionised Barcelona in his first senior role, will preside over a significant overhaul of the City squad.
Several current first-teamers could leave this summer, including Yaya Toure, Wilfried Bony, Jesus Navas, Fernando, Aleksandar Kolarov and Eliaquim Mangala, while a host of big-name players have been linked with the Etihad Stadium in recent weeks.
Zabaleta admits that the City players are mindful that things could look very different by the start of next season, but insists they will not become distracted by the speculation.
Asked about Guardiola's impending arrival being made public, he said: "We need to deal with it. The club decided to announce this now after so many rumours, we really understand this. Now it's just time to finish in the best way we can do this season.
"We are all behind Manuel. He's been great for this football club. So he'll continue in the way he has done for the last few years. Nothing changes for him. And then we'll see at the end of the season with the new manager coming in. We suspect changes, it's normal, but now is not the right time to talk about the future because there's a lot of time for this."
Zabaleta was speaking after City were humbled by Premier League leaders Leicester at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday, a result which left Pellegrini's men six points off the pace.
The Blues have struggled against the division's top teams this season, taking just three points - three draws - from seven games against the other members of the current top six, but Zabaleta has refused to entertain the idea that there is any great significance behind that poor run of results.
"Every single game in this league is very hard," he said. "Every game is played in the same way. Sometimes you can win, sometimes you lose. Nothing mentally or nothing to talk about not winning the big games."
The Argentine did bemoan the fact that City have played far more games than Leicester in recent weeks, but says that the club must accept that they are expected to win trophies.
Acknowledging the spate of injuries to have hit the squad in recent weeks, he added: "I know it’s really hard but now all we can do is be focused on the next games, we have another huge game next week against Spurs so we have a long week now to rest.
"In the last 10 days we’ve played two more games than Leicester and obviously in the way we are playing at the moment it’s hard, but we need to accept that we are Manchester City, we aspire to win as many trophies as we can and we’ll see at the end of the season."
- Goal