Guardiola hints at Grealish Man City exit this summer

Pep Guardiola hinted that Jack Grealish’s Manchester City career could be over after “honest” talks between the winger and the club.

Grealish joined City from Aston Villa in 2021 but has failed to find the form he had for Villa in Manchester. He was subsequently left out of Guardiola’s squad for the Club World Cup.

In his 94 Premier League games for City, Grealish has scored 12 goals and registered just as many assists. In comparison, the 29-year-old found the net six times and assisted 10 goals in his final season with Villa.

Guardiola did not confirm whether Grealish would leave the club but said the forward needs to rediscover his love for the game.

“He had a conversation between him and the club, and they decided it was best [to stay behind from the CWC],” said Guardiola.

“Jack is an exceptional player. The only reason why he didn’t play last season is, of course, my decisions. We decide that he has to play. The club was honest, he was honest.

“We decide the best is to stay [behind] and have a place that he can feel like he can come back to be the player like he was in the year of the treble or all his career in Aston Villa.

“The fact is in the last two seasons, he didn’t play much minutes. He has to come back to play and have the butterflies in his stomach that he can play every three days, every three days and show again the quality he has.”

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Guardiola did make a decision on who would be his new captain. Bernardo Silva will take the armband from Kevin De Bruyne, who has joined Napoli.

Silva is focused on correcting their mistakes from last season rather than his contract situation, with the Portuguese player entering the final year of his current deal.

“I’ve had options in the past and this year but, like last year, this year my option is to stay at Manchester City,” said Silva.

“I know what I’m going to do, but it’s not the time to talk about that. I’m very focused on my season and performing well for City. When the time is due, I will talk about it.

“We talked a lot last season, as a group, about what happened, and we learned a lot of very important lessons.

“Hopefully, we’re never going to forget them, especially this season. We’re not going to forget what happened last season and try to make things right.”