Kyle Walker Reveals Pep Guardiola's Unique Coaching Methods and His Transfer to Manchester City

Earlier on in the show we were joined by rock and roll superstar Man City fan null Gallagher. Have a listen to this. You mentioned Carl Walkers on our show in 12 minutes. Any Carl Walker stories you want to give a little mention to. No. [clears throat] None that I can share. But you have got them but none that you can share. Okay. Anyway, tell him I said hello. He's a legend that guy. Oh, of course I will. How nice is that? Yeah. Really nice. No, really class guy. He was We were talking about Pep and we're going to get your view on it. But no was saying it a couple of times.

Null's been in like team meetings when you've all been there. And do you remember though? You obviously remember those times when N Yeah. He always whenever we win a trophy, Null's in the changing room, but you can't really say no to him, can you? Kick him out. You just got to let him in. I remember he was down at Brighton and then he's been up at the Etiad, you know, a number of times. So, it's always good to see him. Yeah. Talking about Pep Guardiola, no more will he be the Man City manager after this season. You must have had or you must have fond memories of Pep.

Tell me about the first time that he phoned you up or contacted you to come and play for Man City. How did that happen? No, obviously I had a decent couple of seasons at Tottenham and he just said before, you know, me and Danny Rose as wing backs. Um, and 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. Oh wow. Um, but I know Trippia 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 in Portugal. I was playing golf. I come back from around and he gave me a call and he just said, you know, I really like you to be on my team. And you know, I'm shivering on the phone. I'm walking up and down the garden at the place that we were saying. And you know, 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 was it was a no-brainer then. You know when you first obviously met him and you had your first training sessions. Now I remember having a conversation with Delelfy about when he first worked with Pep he almost said to me Ben you would not believe not that it's complicated

but he was like this guy sees football in a completely different way than anything I've ever experienced before. How long did it take you to kind of get used to the way that he wanted you to play? I'd say probably two seasons. Wow. Yeah, I'd say probably two seasons. It was mental because Can I Sorry. You say, "Wow, that's quick or long." That's two seasons. That's a long time. Some managers don't last a year. Oh, okay. I reckon two seasons before I fully got what he wanted from the game of football.

Um, and I think he always used to bring me into his office, show me different clips and everything like that. and he used to say um Maserano was the same at Barcelona where he just didn't get it. He just didn't get it and I was probably 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 was playing against, but in training I was a disaster. A disaster. In what way? Wow. I just couldn't get the pictures in my head of where the free man was and it just like it just wouldn't it wouldn't set in. And obviously my physicality would then get

me through the training sessions, you know, run around, smash a few people. Obviously, you play with me, Benty. And you know, I kind of I relied on my pace a lot and then the games 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." Because I just struggled. Did you ever tell him you didn't or did you just not? No, he told me. He told you. He told me. Yeah, he told me I struggled. Okay. In the training sessions on certain ones. I wasn't completely awful in them. But trying to find the I'm cuz in my head I'm trying to picture what session are

you doing where you can't find the spare man? All right. So if you think I've gone from training with Harry Rednap and Pochettino which is very physical normal standard with Harry of you've got I don't know 7v7 with a floater. Yeah and the floater is a spare man of course 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 center 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 the inside going out.

Yeah. And I just couldn't get it. It was just like people was running at me all different directions like, well, he's come from there, he must be free. And it just wouldn't it wouldn't register. But then you look at like Gundo or Bernardo Silva, it was like a walk in the park for him. But my theory was that they was playing in the middle so they always had the outside pass. That was my theory. I was like boxed in a corner. Like me and Denilo was like boxing a corner. It was like me v him. But um 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.

Was I'm guessing he's one of those managers always there when you arrive and when you leave you're still at the ground, right? Yeah. 100% 100%. He was It's like an addiction for him. It's an addiction. And I feel that with the clubs that he's managed, the players that he's managed, you can see why it's an addiction because it demands the best out of you. And it's daily. You know, he used to say to me, I asked you to train for one hour. One hour of full concentration. You know, sometimes I'm away with the fairies. I'm thinking about what I'm having for dinner, you know, later on tonight or something.

Bend is the same. That's what I've got to put up with Benny every hour. You get hour and a half. I see it. But sometimes you float off in the game, don't you? You just float off. And he was just like, I just want one hour of concentration for me. That is it, Kyle. And I was just like, when you say it like that, it sounds easy, but it really wasn't. Well, so you would start daydreaming during a game of football. I daydream I think still now. Sometimes I think to concentrate I think goalkeepers probably have it down to a tea where their full concentration for 90 plus minutes has to be completely on

it. But I think if you speak to any player and if they was honest, are they fully concentrated for 90 plus minutes? You're not. You do. You switch off. You look at the crowd, you're trying to see where your mom and dad daddies, aren't you and everything like that. What are you talking about? No, I'm being serious. Like, you're not fully concentrated for 96 minutes. It's impossible. That's amazing. But go but goalkeepers get maybe if All right. If you're Edison at Manchester

City, you probably got 20 minutes where you're not actually not doing anything. If you're not concentrated, it doesn't really matter. No, that's fair. Other goalkeepers, I think, with the I'm going to say the lower down you go, when you're taking more shots, you then have to be concentrated. continuously. You know, you mentioned Edison there. Right. Now, I don't know if you was at City then when Pep came in and he changed Johart for Bravo.

Yeah. And then Bravo straight away and then Edison. What was it like then when he started working with the goalkeepers? Because again, we me and Andy, we always talk on this show about how we think Pep's kind of changed football in this country with the goalkeepers playing from the back. When Edison comes in, have you ever seen anything like that in terms of And what was he doing in training? Was he training with you guys? No, no, no. He was obviously training with the goalkeeping coach, but I can just remember this kick and this kick that he had from the goalkeep like obviously the dead ball line to our center forward was ridiculous. We played Tottenham in Denver I think it was

and my first game as the preseason. So I've just left Tottenham. My first game is against Tottenham and Aguero stood on the 18 yard box of Tottenham's goal and Tottenham players have just left him and I'm thinking [clears throat] to myself, obviously they're my mates like I know Tottenham lads more than I know my lads. I'm thinking you actually don't know what's coming here and he's just booted the ball and we've gone and scored from it and I'm he just possessed this thing that he was just so calm on the ball like he didn't care. Yeah. But I feel that just what made him how he is. And I feel that we probably wouldn't have gone and achieved what we went on to achieve if he wasn't there.

Did you know Bravo wasn't going to work the minute he turn up? Well, I remember Joe Hart getting the phone call or having a phone call conversation with Pep at the Euros and that's when he found out that he wasn't playing or wasn't going to be, you know, his first choice keeper. Pep called him at the Euros cuz Cladio was coming. I wasn't at Man City there. Thanks for that, Pep. Cheers, Pep. Well, Joe said to me at the Euros that was when Pep called him, but I wasn't there the first season of Bravo because that's when they just scraped the Champions League. I came the season after that. But Bravo and Edison

was obviously batting out for the number one when I got there. Did um Did Pepe ever come to your house? Uh no. I've been The lads always have this. I've been to his flat twice. Okay. Why? Conversation. How did that What? He just said, "Can you come see me?" Yeah. He just said like um sometimes he would call me or you know uh get one of the player operations to give come and grab me and I want to chat with you. And one time I knocked on his door. All right boss, you wanted a chat? He went no not here. He was like at my house. So I had to go to his flat and what? With him?

Yeah. With him? So you both got in the car? No, no, no, no, no, no. It weren't that awkward. It wasn't that He was just like me. Yeah, he was face to face with him and not here. He was like, "Not here, but in a couple of hours time." He was like, "Meet me in an hour back at my place." Okay. So then you got there. So then I got there, knocked on the door and he opened it. He was like, "Come down. Do you want a coffee?" And then we just sat and we probably talked for like two hours. It was just about general, you know, life, football, what I can do better, what he feels I can do better, uh, and everything like that.

He's just he's a really good man manager, not just a, you know, a manager on the pitch for tactics as well. Did he ever lose it? Oh, 100%. Like that like proper? Yeah. Hairdryer. Uh, I wouldn't say haird dryer, but smashing boards and tactics boards and everything like that. You most of the time. Yeah. Most There were certain I'm thinking about your dinner. There was there were certain players that he could probably, and I've said this before, but he could have a go at. So, I feel that other players, you know, you probably been in a change room before where you have a go at

someone and you've lost them. There's no point in you shouting at that person at that precise moment in time because you're going to lose them on a game. But other players, you can shout at them and you get a reaction or you can shout at him to get a reaction out of the other lads. And I feel that, you know, me, Ruben, Diaz, Edison, Jack, Erling to a certain degree. Uh definitely Aguero. They used to scream at him. Definitely Aguero. Yeah. Uh and I think Kevin in certain times when he needed to, he would come a bit. He was all fair game.

Wow. Who never got screamed at? Who's his favorite? Bernardo Silva. Bernardo. Yeah, it's his son. that's Is he the best manager in the Premier League ever? It's difficult. I think it's a unjustice to Sax Ferguson to say it's just Pep outright, but especially in the modern era, you know, Pep's hand down. Hands down. Yeah. And Wenger as well. Yeah. Forget that. We're going to This is such a great chat. We'll carry this on right after this. our last section with Koka who's talk sports latest signing for the World Cup. So it's not just today you're going to hear

him on Talk Sports all through the World Cup. More from the three of us right after this lava drive.