Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola is giving little away over the future of Kevin De Bruyne, who is now free to speak with interested clubs from overseas about a free transfer
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola is giving little away over the future of Kevin De Bruyne, who is now free to speak with interested clubs from overseas about a free transfer Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola is giving little away over the future of Kevin De Bruyne, who is now free to speak with interested clubs from overseas about a free transfer
Pep Guardiola says it’s not down to him to decide whether Manchester City should hand Kevin De Bruyne a contract extension.
With the transfer window now open, De Bruyne can talk to clubs abroad about a move in the summer. Guardiola, though, insisted it ‘wasn’t my business’ when asked if he was in talks with the Belgian about extending his contract.
The influential 33 year-old is out of contract at the end of the season after a decade at the club. He’s had injury and fitness issues in the last couple of seasons and Guardiola admitted: “He had problems in the last year and year and half.
“But, of course, when he’s consistent and fit and when he can play regularly I said many times, he’s a really important player for us. A decisive player.
“But it’s going to happen for the club and how he’s going to perform until the end of the season, the age he is at and many things. I think the club has to think about it.”
Guardiola admits the mood has improved at Manchester City after the Premier League champions ended a run of one victory in 13 games by beating Leicester 2-0 on Sunday. But now he says they have to build on their rare win.
Ahead of tomorrow’s visit from West Ham, Guardiola was asked if he’d seen signs that he believed confidence is coming back for his faltering squad. He replied: “It was just a game where we didn’t play in our best level. We just won because sometimes football is like that.
“So there are other games when we play better and didn’t win. Of course, it’s good for the mood [victory]. You don’t get results, obviously.
“But we have an opportunity against West Ham to make another victory which will always help with the future.”
There had been hope injured players such as Ederson, Matheus Nunes, Ruben Dias and John Stones could return to the squad.
But on potential returnees, Guardiola told today’s press conference: “No. [We’ll be] quite similar. Like we were in Leicester. [Dias] Getting better but he’s not ready for tomorrow. And yesterday he [Ederson] trained better. It was his first training without disturbance in his leg. I hope (soon).”
After an impressive display off the bench versus Leicester, Guardiola was also asked whether that gave him more belief that 22 year-old midfielder James McAtee could start in the Premier League.
He said: “Yes. At the end, I believe he maybe should have more minutes but he’s young and there’s a lot of games to play. But he’s perfectly good and, most importantly, is his team-mates were so happy because he has big respect for how he behaves in the locker room.”
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