Pep Guardiola’s ruthless Jack Grealish message last season offers Savinho route back at Man City

Add as preferred source on Google

Manchester City’s transfer business could go down to Monday’s deadline day – but one player who won’t be moving is Savinho.

Tottenham were interested in signing Savinho, but City have told him that they will not sanction a sale. TBR Football understand Savinho is upset with City, and still hopes a deal could be reached before the deadline.

Pep Guardiola doesn’t take kindly to players who make it clear they want to leave, but has shown he will use players like Ederson and Bernardo Silva who give their all to the club after deciding to stay.

So if Savinho doesn’t get his move, he must fight for his place after missing the start of the season with injury. To do that, he could look at Guardiola’s advice to Jack Grealish when he was out of favour last season.

Pep Guardiola told Jack Grealish to fight for his Manchester City place last season

Jack Grealish is one winger who has left Manchester City, joining Everton on loan for the season. As he struggled for regular minutes last season, Guardiola pointed to Savinho as one of the main reasons behind Grealish’s omission.

Speaking in January, Guardiola told a press conference: “It’s easy; as much as he [Grealish] looks himself, and will see the contention, they have to compete with themselves and now Savinho is in better shape and everything than Jack, and that’s why I play Savinho.

“I try to be honest with myself for that, and what happened with Savinho delivering into the box is higher than maybe the other wingers in that position. And they have to fight! You can say, ‘OK now it’s unfair’, OK if you decide to think about that, it’s fine.

“They have to prove, ‘OK, I’m going to fight with Savinho to deserve to play in that position’, and every single day, and every single week, and every single month.”

Savinho must now follow Pep Guardiola’s instruction to Jack Grealish to win back his Man City place

If Savinho remains upset at City blocking his move to Spurs, then he may find himself in a similar position to Grealish last season – especially with increased competition out wide from Omar Marmoush, Rayan Cherki and Phil Foden.

Guardiola also said in January: “I fought a lot [for Grealish] to be here to, ‘Come on! Do it again! Do it again!’ And I know he can do it, because I saw him, I saw him! And I want that! Every single training session, every single game.

“And Savinho, there is someone in this room that thinks Savinho doesn’t deserve, right now, to play? No. Deserved. So that’s why he plays, because he produced.”

Savinho’s route back to City starts seems clear from Guardiola’s past comments: produce goals and assists and he will play.