Man City should have sold ‘one of their best players’.

It’s always nice to see a player recover from adversity. Before England’s comfortable 3-0 victory over Wales on Thursday evening, Manchester City‘s John Stones He said he considered retiring last season amid endless injury problems.

But 30-year-old Stones has already started five games in all competitions for the Nationals this season, claiming victory at Wembley, despite struggling but surviving fitness concerns.

Stones isn’t the only one at Manchester City targeting a renaissance at the more mature end of his career, though, with Jack Grealish He’s starting to look like a £100m player again.

Only, he’s doing it on Merseyside, in an Everton shirt.

Why did Man City loan Jack Grealish?

Pep Guardiola He broke the bank on signing Grealish from Aston Villa for a British record fee of £100m. That was 2021. The Three Lions star was silky, elegant and everything else, but he got lost somewhere within Manchester City’s mechanics during his four years at the Etihad.

However, the 30-year-old remains a local, and was transferred on loan to Everton this summer. But Grealish is back to his best form so far this season, registering four assists in August to earn the Premier League Player of the Year award and scoring the final winner at Hill Dickinson to end Crystal Palace’s 19-match unbeaten run.

Grealish is perhaps at his best when the team’s leading figure is the talisman. Under Pep’s wing, something went wrong, and he struggled on the sidelines during his past two Premier League campaigns.

If the Sky Blues pull it off Selling £300,000-a-week talent permanently next summer, they won’t get anything close to the number back once it’s paid.

During 157 matches with Manchester City, Grealish scored 17 goals and provided 23 assists for his teammates.

He was never a prolific player, per se, but there was no doubt that there was a lot to be desired, and Guardiola knew it, giving his record signing just 17 Premier League appearances during his final two spells. During this period he scored six goals.

Grealish is not the only one who could be moved on this summer, although Pep and his team-mates may look at the opportunity to sell. Bernardo Silva For a huge character with something akin to remorse.

Pep should have sold Bernardo Silva

Silva, 31, is one of the standout stars of the Guardiola era at Manchester City. A six-time English Premier League champion, he participated in 419 matches with the club, making him ninth on the list of players with the most appearances ever.

But it started to decline. Although the coach named him captain this summer, Silva has lost some of the magic that was often recognizable throughout his career, with Fabrizio Romano only saying this week that the veteran “He has chances to leave Man City“Before 2026.

It has been a long and distinguished career for Silva at Manchester City, but Guardiola’s team is improving, and rumors of possible departures of Iberian talent have often emerged in recent years.

Last season was a struggle for everyone at the club, but Silva felt the confusion and turmoil more than anyone else. His production was halved, and he was benched seven times during the latter half of the top-flight season.

After changing his role, Silva is no longer producing goals and assists with the same regularity, and Sovascor is on record as averaging just one chance per game in the Premier League this season, losing 70% of his duels so far.

He has captained Manchester City six times in all competitions this season, and remains one of the most intelligent and quick players in the Premier League, even being described as “One of the best players“Guardiola has seen it before.

But, at 31 years of age, there is a sense that he is in the twilight of his career in English football, and is no longer the regular starter he once was.

He remains a tenacious and multi-layered attacking midfielder, ranking in the top 1% of his positional peers across Europe for pass completions, top 10% for tackles and top 7% for passes per 90, but the Portugal international could have fetched a pretty penny for City in the past. With Transfermarkt registration The ace had a market value of €100m (£86m).

Silva is in the top 54% in terms of goals and assists combined, which is not enough for a City team looking for a different attacking dimension, which eases the burden on Erling Haaland.

The Saudi suitors introduced themselves Last year, I got their bids on standby. It came down to nothing, but as the Portuguese star hinted that next season could be his last as he stares at the peak of his contract in Manchester, could there be a touch of regret that a blockbuster sale could not have been engineered and City must instead bid farewell to one of their best players on a free?

News is already circulating that Silva could leave for free in the summer Consider Benfica and Milan Among the applicants. This is a reality that Man City must accept. Perhaps they should have sold him last season, or the year before, but after signing him in 2017 for £43.5m, there are those who would suggest that City have got a lot of bang for their buck.

In terms of regretting not selling sooner to speed up the rebuilding process, the same logic can be attributed to Grealish, who stayed at Manchester City for two years before moving to Everton and reviving his career. If City had capitalized on either of them before falling behind and falling back, it could have been a huge number.