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It’s been a week of sad and shocking news for football fans as two footballing maestros have announced their departure from their current long-term suitors. The first one being Thomas Muller and the other name is Kevin De Bruyne. The Belgian midfielder has defined an era at Manchester City in the decade that he has donned the City jersey after planning to leave the club at the end of the current season. De Bruyne has arguably been one of the best playmakers in the Premier League under Pep Guardiola and his stats and achievements speak about his quality themselves.
With 188 G/A till date, including the second most number of assists in PL history alongside six Premier League titles and an iconic treble, De Bruyne’s legacy is matched by only a few other players in world football. Recently, City manager Pep Guardiola revealed the reason for De Bruyne’s departure. When asked by a reporter about whether De Bruyne instigated the desire to leave himself, Guardiola corrected him by saying that it was the club’s decision.
Spicy Manchester derby coming up as City aim for Champions League spot
Speaking about the decision, Guardiola said, “The decision has been made for the club.. Me, Txiki and the club.. So it is what it is”, referring to Txiki Bergiristain, who is Man City’s sporting director. The move might have come from the fact that Manchester City will be looking at a sort of rebuild after a rather poor outing in the current season. Pundits have repeatedly criticized the high average age of the City squad with a lot of ageing midfielder like Gundogan, De Bruyne and Bernado Silva.
Next up for Pep Guardiola is the Manchester derby as he comes up against Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United. Amorim has got the better of Guardiola at the start of the season when he beat Man City with his previous club Sporting FC in the Champions League group-stage. It will be interesting to see whether Amorim can repeat his success against Pep with the Red Devils.
