Pep Guardiola told Leroy Sane that Manchester City will not stand in his way of leaving for Bayern Munich if the winger is unhappy. The Bundesliga champions have publicly courted Sane, who is valued at upwards of £90million, all summer and are awaiting an answer as to whether he wants a move.
The Germany international has two years left on his contract and City have so far failed in their attempts to tie him down to a new deal.
“The club made him an offer last year,’ Guardiola said. ‘We want people happy to be here. We are going to help him to the best we know-how, (to realise) his potential.
“The desire to have him to be with us is always there. I spoke to the club 10 times (to say) that I want people here to be happy if they don’t want, they go.”
Guardiola expects Sane—who looked sharp during the 4-1 pre-season victory over West Ham— to remain at the Etihad Stadium amid Bayern’s interest.
The City boss sympathised with the 23-year-old after a lack of starts during the second half of last season.
“He knows, they all know that it’s difficult because of the quality we have,” Guardiola added. “He has a special quality, (which is) difficult to find around the world.”
City will sit down in the coming weeks to decide who takes over from Vincent Kompany as captain. David Silva, entering his final season with the club, is a candidate alongside Kevin De Bruyne.
“If the team wants me to be captain I will gladly accept it but I think everyone needs to talk about it as a club,” De Bruyne said.
“It will be spoken about when everyone comes back. I think we need to do that together because it’s a really important job not only on the pitch but off it.”
Elsewhere, Arsenal fans have demanded Eddie Nketiah is given first-team opportunities this season after his winner in the pre-season game against Bayern Munich.
The 20-year-old striker came off the bench and poked in in the 88th minute to seal a 2-1 victory for Arsenal in their International Champions Cup opener on Wednesday evening.
Robert Lewandowski had levelled in the second half after Louis Poznanski’s own goal before Nketiah struck late on to end Arsenal’s recent hoodoo against the German champions. The young striker was on the cusp of Unai Emery’s thinking last season and was only used sparingly, making just five appearances in the Premier League.
But after his encouraging performance in the pre-season win at LA Galaxy’s Dignity Health Sports Park, fans now want to see Nketiah used on a more regular basis.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette are the club’s leading strikers, but the Arsenal supporters believe Nketiah has shown enough quality to be the next man in line.
