Manchester City: Guardiola to axe three; Toure to find a new club; Youngster set for first start

By grvadmin

Manchester City had an excellent transfer window, bringing in the likes of Ilkay Gundogan, Leroy Sane, John Stones and several other supremely talented youngsters who will no doubt shine through in the future. Although the summer window is over, the reports and rumours are still filtering through for Pep Guardiola’s new-look Citizens side.

The first news report is quite a huge one, and it comes from the Manchester Evening News, who say that three big names could well be gone from the Etihad Stadium when next summer comes around, as Guardiola is prepared to let their contracts expire. The trio in question is Gael Clichy, Pablo Zabaleta and Bacary Sagna, who are all fighting to earn a new deal.

All of the threesome have won trophies at Manchester City, but they’ll all be on expensive contracts, and if they are moved on come next August, it’ll likely give Pep Guardiola more money to bring in new faces who perhaps will fit his high-pressing system better.

It goes to show that City’s new head coach simply isn’t afraid of upsetting the applecart a bit, because Pablo Zabaleta in particular, has been a massive part of proceedings in the blue half of Manchester for several years now.

However, we’ve seen just how ruthless Pep Guardiola can be in the past, look at Yaya Toure as a prime example of that. The marauding midfielder is where our next report is based, and the usually reliable Independent say that the Ivorian will consider signing a pre-contract with another European club when January comes around. This is down to the fact that Toure wasn’t included in City’s Champions League squad for the upcoming campaign.

The rules and regulations state that any player who is out of contract is free to talk to clubs based in other countries when they have six months left on their present deal. This will probably mean a whole host of huge names will be eyeing a move for Yaya Toure on a pre-contract deal, with a view to the 33-year-old joining in the following summer.

Although no clubs are named, you’d imagine he’ll have plenty of offers on the table come the turn of the year despite his age. An ideal destination for him would probably be the MLS, as it’ll allow him to collect a huge payday whilst playing at a reasonable level at the same time.

Now we head onto Manchester City’s brilliant youth setup. One man who was expected to play plenty of minutes under Guardiola is Jason Denayer. However, the supremely talented Belgian defender was sent out to Sunderland on loan.

Now the Sunderland Echo say that 21-year-old is in line for his first start tonight,  for the Black Cats, as they take on Rochdale in a Checkatrade trophy game. Kick-off is at 7:45, and Denayer will be hoping to put in a commanding performance, to give David Moyes a real selection headache come the weekend.

Denayer’s talents are clear for all to see, and the young man has already represented his country on seven occasions at the highest level which backs that point up. He’s at that stage in his career where he needs to be playing regular football, and hopefully, Sunderland will be able to offer him that.

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