Pep Guardiola wants a bigger squad next season to avoid a repeat of this year's never-ending injury crisis, and that could re-open a door for some of his older Manchester City players to stay. Including Kevin De Bruyne.
Guardiola last week said that players who can't stay fit will have to leave as a 'natural rebuild' takes place. City's squad is one of the oldest in the Premier League and a number of their experienced heads have suffered from injury, form and fitness struggles all season.
That has led to the manager conceding that City will have to have talks with some of their longer-serving players over their futures, with De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan out of contract in the summer and others like John Stones, Nathan Ake and Jack Grealish talked about as possibly coming to the end of their City careers.
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Now, though, the manager has left the door open to some of those players to save their City careers if they buy into his vision for the future.
Regarding De Bruyne, Guardiola spoke of an honest relationship between manager and player as his future remains unresolved. Guardiola insists the Belgian will be allowed to make his own decision about his future, saying: "Of course we know each other quite well and we are quite honest with that. I think in that situation he has to decide, that is the most important thing.
"He’s completely honest with himself, to decide what he feels and what he can do in the next period of his life. He’s 34 in the summer and he has to decide, like what happened with David Silva for example."
Guardiola said he left De Bruyne out at Real Madrid due to his physicality, citing his preference for new boy Abdukodir Khusanov to Ruben Dias against Liverpool due to his pace, as a similar selection call. He had called his line up against Liverpool, aside from De Bruyne and Ake, the 'future' of the club, adding to the feeling that City want to go in a different direction.
Join all the dots and it sounds like De Bruyne could be moving on in the summer. However, Guardiola has offered a lifeline.
"Young players have the rhythm the older players don't have. But older players give something younger players don't give you," he said.
While he wouldn't challenge his under-fire players to fight for their futures in the final three months of the season, he did say: "We need everyone. We are part of that. In the next one, two, three years some of the players will be a bit different. Everybody knows it."
But if players like De Bruyne are to play a part beyond this season, Guardiola conceded their injury records will be factored in. And if the older contingent stay, it will be to help new signings find their bearings.
"The guys who remain here and the guys who come, how is their history in terms of injuries?" Guardiola asked. "You have to think about who can play every three days for a month. That's the most important thing otherwise it can happen the same as this season. You have to try to avoid it.
"The club has to sign players but at the same time the club has to keep the players we have as much as possible. Because with the Club World Cup then immediately the season, it will be even tougher next season, we need a little bit bigger squad year.
"Always when you sign players, it's better to find them young to make their career. When Kevin comes here, he comes to do what he has done here. I prefer and the club prefers that than buy a player to come for the last years [of their career].
"We will see how they behave, the players who were here many years here and the young ones, game by game until the end of the season to finish what we have to do and prepare for next season."
So with no Champions League football and a Premier League reality check against Liverpool, Guardiola will be watching which older players are ready to fight to help transition to the new era.
With no pre-season this summer and a stated desire for a bigger squad, maybe there won't be the exodus Guardiola had hinted at recently. But any existing player who wants to be at the Etihad next term must show they buy into their role for 2025/26 from this position.
The door isn't closed on the old guard, however the rebuild has started and Guardiola will only take players with him who accept their new reality. Starting at Tottenham on Wednesday.
