What do Manchester City tell players who want to leave the club?

As the summer transfer window approaches, and speculation surrounding the future of players grows, a new report has revealed the stance of Manchester City regarding possible exits.

Pep Guardiola’s side have had a mixed campaign thus far, with the incredible successes of Erling Haaland in front of goal marred by below par performances in competitions and the exit from the Carabao Cup at the quarter-final stage.

Some have even gone as far as to report that certain players within the football club have grown unhappy with elements of the season as well as their place in Guardiola’s plans – namely the likes of Joao Cancelo and Aymeric Laporte, as per one report.

As an important summer transfer window approaches, and fans call for significant changes in the shape of arrivals across the first-team squad, exits from the team are also expected, and some may even be requested by players themselves.

But how do Manchester City handle informal transfer requests from members of their playing squad, and how do they go about entertaining any such requests?

As per a recent report from The Athletic’s Sam Lee, the stance from Manchester City ‘in short’ is a simple one in relation to any players wishing to leave the football club: ‘Thanks very much for your service. If you bring us a good offer, you can leave.’

As such, if no ‘good offer’ arrives, then all parties can ‘sit down’ at the end of the summer and have ‘an honest conversation’, as described by The Athletic.

The hope then from the viewpoint of Manchester City, is that the player in question will then know that the club ‘did what they could’ to sell them, and can then focus on the season ahead.

Sam Lee writes that this has happened ‘a lot’ over the last few years, and most commonly known in regards to Bernardo Silva, and the Portugal international’s long-standing desire to find a way out of the Etihad Stadium.

The report states that when it became clear at the end of last summer that no serious bids had arrived for the former AS Monaco star, Bernardo Silva sat down with Pep Guardiola, they ‘hugged’, and the Portuguese midfielder said that he would continue to give his all.

But what could Manchester City be looking for when it comes to possible arrivals in the summer transfer window?

The strongest suggestion is that a central midfielder will be the focal point of Manchester City’s interest in the summer market, with a wide-forward coming in as a close second priority for transfer-focussed officials.

Borussia Dortmund’s Jude Bellingham has a number of key admirers within the Etihad Stadium, and the current understanding is that groundwork for a possible bid in the summer has already been put in place.

Elsewhere, AC Milan’s Rafael Leao and Napoli’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia are being monitored by scouts from Manchester City and they may become players of interest when the transfer window opens following the end of the season.