Guardiola on Walker, Bernardo Silva and City's summer losses

Leila Mermelstein 8 months ago 10.1k |

Reading time: minutes

Pep Guardiola has faced questions about departures from his team. EFE

Pep Guardiola has spoken to the press ahead of Manchester City's clash with Arsenal on Sunday for the Community Shield, and faced questions about the summer transfer window that the Cityzens have had. Notable losses have already included Ilkay Gundogan and Riyad Mahrez and now the Sky Blues could see the departures of Kyle Walker and Bernardo Silva.

Over a month into the transfer window, Manchester City have seen more departures than arrivals. The sole player to join the squad has been midfielder Mateo Kovacic, who signed from Chelsea in June and since then the Cityzens have faced some high-profile exits.

First captain Ilkay Gundogan left on free transfer to join Spanish champions Barcelona and July saw Riyad Mahrez leave the Etihad to join Saudi side, Al-Ahli.

Asked about losing players, manager Pep Guardiola mourned the loss of the two midfielders: “We lost two incredible players for us, Gundogan and Riyad was massively important in the last two seasons, goals, assists and personality on the big occasions and important games".

But that's not the end of City's troubles. Two more players have been attracting attention from overseas: Kyle Walker and Bernardo Silva.

Walker felt sidelined last season and has serious interest from Bayern Munich, while the Portuguese playmaker has several potential suitors, such as PSG, Barcelona and various Saudi teams.

The Spaniard feels their departures would be "so difficult" and declared City would "do everything to keep them".

“Kyle and Bernardo what can I say? They are so important for us,” he began. "We are going to do everything. We want him to stay, we will do everything. To replace these players is so so difficult".

“To lose Kyle and Bernardo would be so difficult. That’s why we are going to do everything to keep them because they want to be here”, he finished