Pep

Manchester City assistant manager Pep Lijnders has hinted midfielder Bernardo Silva’s nine-year spell at the club will end this summer, saying “every good story comes to an end”.

The 31-year-old’s contract expires at the end of the season. He has not yet signed an extension and has been linked with La Liga leaders Barcelona, Serie A side Juventus and clubs in America.

Lijnders was on media duty after Saturday’s 4-0 FA Cup quarter-final win over Liverpool with manager Pep Guardiola serving a touchline ban, and reflected on the importance of the Portuguese international to City.

“You never replace a player with the same kind of player because they don’t exist,” he said.

“Bernardo Silva is unique. The way he controls games, the way he moves, the way he receives, the way he leads, the way he sees the solutions. All these things.

“But it will be hard because, as I said, in the game, when he is not playing you will see how he is missed – and that’s one game. Imagine a season.

“But every good story comes to an end, and I hope he enjoys the last months – there are only six weeks – and has a good farewell.

“He deserves all that attention as well.”

Rodri won the Ballon d’Or in 2024 but missed almost the entirety of last season after sustaining a knee injury and City failed to win a major trophy for the first time in eight years.

He has missed large chunks of this campaign because of a hamstring issue but has played 28 games in all competitions, helping the side to win the Carabao Cup against Arsenal at Wembley.

During his time at City, Rodri has won four Premier League titles, the Champions League, FA Cup and three League Cups.

Rodri previously said to Spanish media: “There have been many players who’ve gone down that path [playing for Atletico and Real].

“Not immediately, but over time. For me, you can’t turn down the best clubs in the world.”

Guardiola said Rodri has shown over time “how attached, how close he is” to City and his “contribution has been massive”.

The manager confirmed he would “absolutely” not stand in the midfielder’s way if he wanted to leave, adding: “The organisation of the club is above all of us – if one player is not happy they have to leave and [we] continue the same always if they are happy – and I think he is happy.

“If he is not happy just knock on the door of the sporting director, accept an offer according to his incredible quality and after that he doesn’t belong to the club – only himself.

“I know what the club wants. They informed me what they want from Rodri – it is to stay, stay, stay. I always had the positive [feeling] with that but at the end I don’t know.”

This particular run of seven games will define City’s season on all four fronts – losing twice against Real means their trophy prospects have been reduced to three.

That could be down to two on Sunday with a huge clash against the Gunners, who are hungry to rid their tags of ‘nearly men’ by ending a trophy drought which stretches back to 2020.

“On Monday [after Carabao Cup final] hopefully we will wake up and it is a sunny day,” said Guardiola. “It is not crucial, it is a football game, we are going to try to win with a good performance.

“We will challenge against the best team in England so far, the best team in Europe because look at their results in the group phase, they were first and have lost three or four games all season. We will challenge them and we have to see how we are competing against them.”

City were held to a surprise 1-1 draw at relegation strugglers West Ham, which has left them nine points off the pace in the Premier League with eight games to go – and a monumental effort is required to overturn that particular deficit.

And the FA Cup is no formality either, with City hosting rivals Liverpool in the quarter-final on Saturday 4 April after the international break, with league games immediately after against Chelsea and Arsenal.

Guardiola said: “After one or two weeks, we play against them in the Premier League and it is a good mirror to see what we have to do to achieve [like] them. I am old enough to see that one football game is not the big happiness or a loss is the end of the world, it’s just a game.

“In the end, the results have not been good except Newcastle but I have the feeling we are an extraordinary team with many, many, many good things that I love.

“We are still not complete, we are not aware in certain moments and departments, we have to be more clinical but my feeling is it is a question of time.”

“We changed to make the players more dynamic, with Rayan, Jeremy [Doku] and Phil [Foden],” Guardiola told his post-match news conference. “But we could not win the game.

“We could be more aggressive in the first half maybe, but with the creativity, the crosses and dribbles this season, we are struggling. The team, they did everything, but they need to be better in the final third, and it has happened in many games this season.”

Asked about picking Semenyo over Cherki as number 10, he said: “Absolutely, for that role there is no-one better than [Cherki]. That is bad selection, you can criticise me, I deserve it.

“Sometimes for the balance, we are learning. We played Cherki and Haaland – incredible, but we do not have the stability teams in the Premier League must have. I try to handle that, and the team is still growing.

“Rayan’s impact off the bench is unbelievable, but sometimes he does not have the pace so we play Semenyo. I am still finding the best way to have stability and to balance the team.”

Haaland’s form is thrown into sharp focus by the fact he struggled against West Ham, a team against who he has scored 11 Premier League goals – more than any other side.

“It’s not about the lack of goals,” Guardiola said of the Norway striker. “We need to create more. He will be back.”

City cannot win well, and they struggle to win ugly too.

They have only lost once in their past 18 league matches, but during that period they have given up 10 points from winning positions – enough to cost them first place in the current standings.

In games where they were winning, they have drawn with Chelsea, Brighton, Tottenham, Nottingham Forest and now West Ham.

Given the latter came a couple of hours after Arsenal, starring Max Dowman, spectacularly dug out victory over Everton, this one will sting.

Guardiola laughed it off afterwards, saying he had been having a beer pre-match rather than following the Arsenal match with his team, as he served a touchline ban.

He also joked he would look to get more yellow cards as he preferred the view from the stands – and light-heartedly batted away a question on whether Haaland was limping.

It felt like if Guardiola didn’t laugh, he would cry.