Man City boss Pep Guardiola
Pep Guardiola applauds the fans after a match.
Man City boss Pep Guardiola could be open to selling John Stones this summer as he looks to offload more players, according to reports.
The Citizens had a season to forget by their standards in the 2024/25 season with Man City finishing third and failing to challenge for the Premier League title, which they had won in their previous four campaigns.
Man City suffered without the influential Rodri, who was injured early on in the season, but the Citizens investment large sums of money in January with Omar Marmoush, Nico Gonzalez, Abdukodir Khusanov, Vitor Reis and Juma Bah arriving.
And the Man City board have backed Guardiola once again this summer with Tijjani Reijnders, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Rayan Cherki and Marcus Bettinelli all coming into the club.
But Guardiola has threatened to quit if he starts the new Premier League season with a bloated squad with a number of players now expected to leave.
And now former Man Utd and Tottenham scout Mick Brown – who is still well-connected in the Premier League – insists that England international Stones is likely to be on the move.
Brown told Football Insider: “It all adds up to a bigger thing at Man City. As I understand it, the manager has asked the club to reduce his squad by at least six because he feels he’s got too many players at the moment.
“So that raises questions about a number of players on the fringes of the squad. Man City have to make decisions about a few of their players, and that’s being discussed.
“Kyle Walker is gone, there are questions about the goalkeeper, McAtee is another one. But I think they’ve got to make a decision about John Stones’ future, because it seems to me that he doesn’t have much of a role to play any more.
“As good as he is when he’s fit, he’s only playing about 15 games a season at the moment. From City’s point of view, they don’t want a player who is barely available because of injury issues, but also other clubs don’t want to pay big money for him.
READ: Arsenal fourth, Spurs third in Premier League net spend table over the last five years
“I expect Guardiola would be open to letting him go if an offer arrived, but that hasn’t happened yet. That will be an interesting one to watch.”
And in another article on Tuesday, Brown has doubled down on the need for Man City to offload some more players before the transfer window shuts.
Along the same lines, Brown added: “As I understand it, Guardiola is desperate to cut the numbers from his squad. He said before he went to the Club World Cup that he wanted his squad reduced by at least six players, and if it isn’t, he isn’t staying.
“I’ve never heard anything like that from a manager, to be honest. But it’s something City are now making progress towards, there are going to be major changes.
“From what I hear, they’re going to be pressing ahead with those sales, looking to drum up interest and speaking to clubs about potential deals.
“They want it to be done before the start of the Premier League season, so in the next few weeks. So in that department, I expect plenty of movement to start happening soon.”