The Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has dropped a strong hints that there could be plenty of departures at the club in the summer.
Manchester City have already won the Carabao Cup and the Premier League titles this season and could cap it up with a treble if they defeat Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League final on May 29.
Thoughts will then turn to the following campaign, and talks will take place with players who may be unhappy with their roles.
“There are players that accept one typical situation in the team and there are other ones that don’t accept it,” Guardiola is quoted as saying in the Daily Mail.“When they don’t accept sometimes not playing, you can sustain that for one season – a short period – but not for a long period. It’s impossible.
“In that position, we have to change. We’ll see at the end of the season. We’ll talk with them and we’ll be clear, they’ll be clear, and we’ll decide the best for the players.”
Raheem Sterling and Aymeric Laporte are the most high-profile players who have slipped down the pecking order this season.
Central defender Laporte was immense in his first two seasons at the club, which resulted in a pair of Premier League titles, but he suffered a serious knee injury at the start of the 2019-20 campaign and has struggled to recapture his best form.
The revival of John Stones and emergence of Ruben Dias has resulted in Laporte spending extended spells on the bench.
Sterling has had a similarly tough time in the current campaign. His form in the previous three seasons was supreme, as he took his game to new heights under Guardiola.
The England international’s goalscoring touch has deserted him in the second half of the season, however, and he is no longer a guara
