Pep Guardiola could only stare into space when he first heard that Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher had gone on USA network TV and suggested Erling Haaland asked to sit out Manchester City's clash with Real Madrid to avoid a difficult game.

Haaland was a surprise name on the City bench at the Bernabeu on Wednesday having failed to overcome the knee issue suffered at the end of last weekend's win against Newcastle. Haaland remained on the bench and did not warm up in Madrid, leaving him a doubt to face Liverpool on Sunday.

Before Wednesday's game, Carragher had suggested on CBS that Haaland had a case of 'Rudiger-itis' - asking whether the striker saw the returning Antonio Rudiger on the Real Madrid team sheet and decided not to face the German.

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Former City player Micah Richards ridiculed the theory, and Guardiola was asked about the comments at the end of his Friday press conference. "Oh god. Did he say that? Jamie Carragher says that? Oh God," he replied, showing utter disbelief at what he had heard.

Guardiola rarely entertains questions like that and won't get involved in public rows unless he feels he has to. He told reporters he would not answer a question comparing Arne Slot's Liverpool side to their former manager Jurgen Klopp's to avoid a negative headline.

And after a very long pause in which he stared at his desk, wondering how to reply, he continued with a hint of anger: "No, I don't laugh, don't make it suspicious. You think Erling Haaland didnt want to play the game to qualify?"

An even longer pause prompted a follow-up question, to which Guardiola defended his player. "It's not nice, it's not true. It was crazy to play the game," he said.

"He has a problem in the knee, he could not play." And then, after another long stare into space, the manager picked up a reporter's phone on his desk, noted how long he had been taking (and pausing), and decided enough was enough before he said anything he would regret.

It was a visual response that will likely go as viral as Carragher's brainless comments, the image doing more than any explanation would, showing a new side of Guardiola that we rarely see.

It felt like Guardiola had a weight lifted after the Champions League exit this week. He admitted, again, that City weren't good enough to progress, pointed to the fact that Atletico Madrid would have likely beaten them too in the last 16, and expressed hope that the easier schedule will help his side get through the last few months of the season.

And in doing so, Guardiola appeared to drop a hint over his future after a difficult campaign. City's struggles, he says, are even more proof that their historic four titles in a row will never be repeated, even by a future City team, and proposed that this season will make the past achievements even better.

"Maybe in the future this will be an incredibly good season for the club to understand how difficult everything is," he said. "Everyone now realises this season what we've done in the past and put into perspective. In the previous seasons I say it is so difficult, everyone says it that for Man City is easy.

"Now everyone realises. Me the first. Even I would say it surprised me the situation how incredible we have done our period. It will not be emulated, not even for this club, unfortunately. Modern football is changing. Recently the teams improve to a level that I cannot imagine in the past. You can't win all the competitions for all the seasons for the simple reason it's impossible.

"This season more than ever you have to stand up. I could not move forward in the last years of my life if for the first time we struggle for results [I say] I don't care. No.

"I'm here until the end of the season. [Then] we see what happen for the player, manager, club and everything. All I ask for the players, try to be here. That's all."

Guardiola emphasised slightly the word manager before adding the end of his list, opening up a possible world where he reviews his future in the summer. However, he spoke of the unconditional support he gets from his chairman and at the start of the answer he offered a commitment to his players.

"I'm here," he said. "Always I said to the players, [feel] whatever you want but try to be here."