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Manchester City played Plymouth Argyle in the fifth round of the FA Cup on Saturday, March 1, and registered a comfortable 3-1 victory with goals coming from Nico O’Reily and Kevin De Bruyne. Before the match, Pep Guardiola spoke to the press about multiple topics including the future of some of the players in his squad. The question came in light of how Guardiola was planning to rebuild his squad for the upcoming season with context to City’s poor form in the current season. The three main players who were a part of this discussion were Manchester City’s main-stay midfielders Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva, and Kevin De Bruyne.
Pep Guardiola was very vocal about how he expected even the players who are above 30 years of age to be at the club next season referring to the three veteran midfielders mentioned above. "A lot of games are going to happen. We cannot do it just with the new ones or the old ones, it has to be all together," he said, talking explicitly about Ilkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva. He also mentioned how De Bruyne’s contract situation is yet to be resolved with the club.
Will Gundogan deliver another good season under Pep?
Ilkay Gundogan first signed for Manchester City in the summer of 2016. He was Pep Guardiola’s first signing after taking charge of the Manchester club coming to England from Borussia Dortmund. For all the seasons he played with City under Guardiola, Gundogan has a fantastic record and has won several trophies including 5 Premier League titles, 4 EFL Cups, 2 FA Cups, and the Champions League. He was even part of the City squad which went on to win the treble.
Gundogan left Man City for Barcelona in the summer of 2023 on a free transfer and played under Xavi Hernandez for one season. He then made another return to his former club in 2024. While Gundogan has played a total of 38 matches this season under Pep Guardiola, his performance hasn’t been of the best level.
Fans want Man City to move on from their veterans?
After Pep Guardiola gave a statement about Ilkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva being part of next year's team as well, Manchester City fans aren’t very happy about it. A lot of fans feel like the time is up for these players with the club and Guardiola should look at integrating newer and fresher faces into his system.
