Man City star’s ‘betrayal’ could test Pep Guardiola custom: An XI of club legends that weren’t missed
As has been the case in a number of transfer windows over the last three years or so, rumours are circulating over Bernardo Silvaâs future at Manchester City.
The six-time Premier League winger, described by Pep Guardiola as âone of the best Iâve ever coachedâ could âbetrayâ his manager this summer by upping sticks, with one report claiming heâs set to move to Barcelona in search of better weather; another says heâll reject the Catalans in favour of Paris Saint-Germain.
Guys, we donât know what to believe, but itâs got us wondering whether the Portuguese magicianâs departure might actually stop the Manchester City trophy train in its tracks. It doesnât feel like there are many, if any, players around with his skillset.
That said, there have been plenty of City heroes over the last decade or so that we thought they would struggle to replace when in fact they have ploughed on without skipping a beat.
Vincent Kompany is the exception, as Liverpool claimed the Premier League at a canter the season after he left for Anderlecht, but Ruben Diasâ subsequent arrival initiated the current era of absolute dominance.
Anyway, hereâs an incredible XI of wonderful footballers that City havenât missed, led by another of their cast-offsâŠ
Manager: Mikel Arteta
Mikel Artetaâs success at Arsenal has ushered in an era of Pep Guardiola disciple obsession, with teams the world over assuming that whatever the Gunners boss has absorbed from the great man, the rest of them must have too. Itâs worked out very well for Bayer Leverkusen but weâre less convinced by Bayern Munichâs decision to appoint a relegated manager and Chelseaâs to hire a guy whose biggest ever win was away at Stoke City.
Anyway, Artetaâs good, and will probably be back one day.
GK: Joe Hart
Itâs easy after seven years of Ederson for us to turn our noses up at what Hart did for Manchester City. Guardiola wanted a goalkeeper who was more comfortable in possession, and fair enough, but that was Claudio Bravo initially, who was more than a little ropey when it came to the real goalkeeping stuff that Hart excelled at.
He was the undisputed England No.1 in the seven years before he was ousted from the City first team, in which time he won the Golden Glove on four occasions.
RB: Pablo Zabaleta
Like when an old dog needs putting out of its misery, Zabaleta wasnât going to give Manchester City a sign that it was time, but it was. Very much in that Branislav Ivanovic mould of right-backs who would rather die of shame than have a winger go past them with their legs intact, the question wasnât whether Zabaleta needed replacing but how Guardiola came to the conclusion that Kyle Walker â Tottenhamâs raiding, carefree wide man â was the man to replace him. We didnât account for the managerâs fun-sucking force.
CB: Fernandinho
The Brazilian was very much playing second fiddle to Rodri by the time he left the club two years ago, but people were questioning whether the Spaniard was the man to be Fernandinhoâs long-term replacement in his debut season as Liverpool finished 18 points clear. That was also in large part down to Cityâs weird decision not to replace Kompany, mind, with Fernandinho forced to operate at centre-back for much of the 2019/20 campaign.
CB: Aymeric Laporte
Named in the Premier League team of the season in his first full campaign, in which City conceded just 23 goals, we genuinely wondered whether we had ever seen a centre-back look so unflustered and effortlessly brilliant and assumed that Laporte would be a Premier League stalwart for years to come. But injuries and Guardiolaâs obsession with signing at least one world-class centre-back a year quickly saw Laporte a long way down the pecking order.
LB: Joao Cancelo
Arguably not just the best full-back but the best player in the Premier League in his last full season before leaving in January for Bayern Munich, supposedly for being a disruptive little so-and-so. How do you replace the best left-back in the Premier League? You donât. You play a centre-back at left-back and win the Treble.
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CM: Ilkay Gundogan
Only Rodri, Ederson and Erling Haaland played more minutes than Gundogan in their Treble-winning season last term and for a while it did feel like his departure for Barcelona might prove costly. Matheus Nunes still looks like a complete misstep but Mateo Kovacic came good in the last few weeks of the season to provide a similar serenity to proceedings as his midfield predecessor.
CM: Yaya Toure
Toure played a big part as Manchester City claimed their first ever Premier League title in his debut season and he continued to be the lynchpin in their midfield, rampaging forward and scoring goals, for the next six campaigns before Guardiola arrived. The guy who also sold him to City from Barcelona didnât see the need for him, David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne, so signed Gundogan to play behind his preferred two and sent Toure on his way. City got 100 points that season, winning the title with five games to spare.
RW: Riyad Mahrez
He got 78 goals and 56 assists for Manchester City, a goal contribution every 110 minutes, and â be honest â youâve already forgotten about him. His departure combined with whatâs proven to be the far more significant exit of Cole Palmer should have been more than the slight inconvenience itâs been for Manchester City this season. Guardiola has sidestepped the issue of not really having a right winger on his books by not really playing with a right winger. Simple.
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AM: David Silva
The football hipsters will claim that heâs Manchester Cityâs greatest ever player, despite definitely actually knowing that the correct answer is De Bruyne. Thatâs hardly a burn on Silva though, who was â if weâre to give him a City accolade â probably the most beautiful player to watch.
His departure paved the way for Phil Foden, whoâs scored 72 goals in the four seasons since Silva left for Real Sociedad, winning the Premier League on all four occasions, as many as Silva won in his decade-long stint at the Etihad.
LW: Raheem Sterling
In a three-season period between 2017 and 2020 Sterling scored 79 goals, a combination of cutting-in curlers and back post tap-ins. In a bid to enure City wouldnât miss Sterlingâs goalscoring ability when he left for Chelsea, Guardiola signed Haaland, who scored 54 goals in his debut season.
ST: Sergio Aguero
A total of 260 goals in 390 games for City at an extraordinary rate of one every 106 minutes and in the eyes of many fans an irreplaceable genius. So Pep didnât bother replacing him for a while. In the season after him and before Haaland, City scored 99 goals to win the Premier League title.
