Pep Guardiola would like to keep Tottenham target Savinho for ‘many years’ | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola insisted he wants to keep Savinho at Manchester City for “many years” to come amid speculation linking the Brazil forward with Tottenham, but reiterated he would not stop players who wanted to leave exiting the club.

The PA news agency understand Spurs opened talks with City over a deal for Savinho earlier this week as they seek a replacement for the departed Son Heung-min and the injured James Maddison.

Savinho made 48 appearances for City in his debut campaign after joining last summer, scoring three goals and adding 13 assists from a wide position, and although he has been criticised for a lack of end product Guardiola sounded keen to keep the 21-year-old.

“I don’t know,” Guardiola said when asked if Savinho would stay. “Tottenham in that case or any other club who wants a player should call the club.

“I am only concerned right now that Savinho will be with us for the rest of the season and hopefully many, many years because at 21 years old, with the potential he has, he plays a lot of minutes. He has to improve in the final decisions but he is an extraordinary player.

“Otherwise he would not have played more than 3,000 minutes last season.

“But in the end the desire of the players is above everything. Then they have to find an agreement with the club. If they don’t make an agreement, the player will be here because the club spent money on that player.”

Guardiola said neither Savinho nor Ederson, the Brazil goalkeeper strongly linked with a move to Turkey, had told him they want to leave City.

“If they want to leave, they will come to me,” he said. “If they want to leave, they will knock on my door.”Guardiola said Savinho will miss Saturday’s Premier League opener away to Wolves with an injury sustained in last week’s pre-season friendly away to Palermo, with the problem expected to keep him out for a “few weeks”.

Rodri, whose absence for most of last season was so telling in City’s midfield, is expected to travel to Wolverhampton following a setback of his own, but Guardiola said City have to careful in managing the 29-year-old’s fitness.

“Rodri is so (close) to coming back but it is important his knee is perfect,” Guardiola said. “He played Juventus (in the Club World Cup) and after six weeks he had an injury in his leg. We try to avoid that now. He needs to play minutes in training sessions.

“What we want for him is not to come back and step back. That would not be good because in this dynamic you cannot get rhythm. This competition is so demanding.”

Guardiola has been keen to get his squad numbers down and this week allowed Jack Grealish to join Everton.

“I wish him all the best at a traditional club like Everton and hopefully he can play, play, and play,” he said.

Another player who could depart is James McAtee, who is close to finalising a move to Nottingham Forest.

“I would love to have Macca but I have too many players,” Guardiola said.