Following rumors of Kevin de Bruyne‘s move to Al Ittihad, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has strongly denied that the Belgian midfielder will leave the Premier League club.
During a press conference while the team is on tour in the United States, the Spaniard made it clear that the player is not for sale: “Kevin is not leaving. If someone wants to leave this summer, we will talk about that, and of course, until the last day of the transfer window, there are possibilities for players to come and go, but De Bruyne is not going to leave.”
So far, City has only signed Savinho for around 25 million euros and not many more additions are expected for this season: “I don’t rule out new players as an option, but I believe there is an 85, 90, 95% chance that we will have the same squad,” Guardiola said.
The coach also noted that he is comfortable with the current squad and hopes to win all the competitions: “I feel comfortable because the quality of the human beings we have in the squad is hard to replace, and the quality is there. But we will see, I don’t know at the last moment if someone will come for one of our players and they will end up leaving, and we will have to replace those departures, we will decide that. I am very curious to see Macca, I have a very good opinion of him. I would love to keep him for next season; he is a special guy for playing in tight spaces.”
Finally, he spoke about the possibility of Rodri winning the Ballon d’Or: “His consistency is brutal. I cannot deny how happy I would be if he could achieve it. But being in the race, being nominated, or winning the Ballon d’Or is fantastic; for him, of course, for his family and friends, but also for Manchester City and the whole organization. I think no one doubts that Spain was brilliant in every aspect, in every match; it is not easy to win 7 out of 7.”