(Image: 2025 Catherine Ivill - AMA)
Pep Guardiola insists Jack Grealish's Manchester City future will be decided in the summer, amid strong suggestions that he is set to leave the club in the coming months.
The former England forward was left on the bench as City lost the FA Cup final to Crystal Palace on Saturday, despite Guardiola's men needing to find a goal in the late stages. Grealish's role has been somewhat reduced this season, with City struggling to match their previous achievements.
It has promoted talk that he could be on his way out of the Etihad as Guardiola looks to freshen up his side for a renewed title challenge next season. Newcastle have been linked with a move for the 29-year-old, who has made just seven Premier League starts for the outgoing champions.
Whether Eddie Howe and Co would be interested in such a move is open to question, especially with Anthony Gordon and Harvey Barnes already vying for Grealish's preferred left-sided attacking role. The player himself is said to be open to a move, but Guardiola insists it's a conversation for incoming director of football Hugo Viana, the current man in the role Txiki Begiristain, and Grealish's agents.
“We didn’t talk, I didn’t talk with him," Guardilola said on Grealish's future. "People don’t believe me, but these things belong to the agents and the club and Txiki, and in this case Hugo as well. Both will decide. What is going to happen will happen, but he has to come back to start to play minutes again.”
However, while the City boss acknowledges Grealish would not have been happy to have missed out of the FA Cup final, he says he is not the only one pushing for a place.
“It’s not only Jack," he added. "There is not one player in my locker room, and I think all the locker rooms around the world, that is happy when they do not play. When the team is winning and winning they have to figure out how everything happens – but they are not happy. They are here to play and, when they don’t play, they are not satisfied. That is the normal position in all the clubs.”
Man City could move ahead of Newcastle in the Premier League table with a win over Bournemouth tonight. Kevin De Bruyne will play his final game at the Etihad for City, before his summer departure. City end their fixtures with a trip to Fulham on the final day.