James McAtee transfer insight and John Stones fitness update – Part Two of Pep Guardiola’s pre-Brentford press conference | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola has issued significant insight into the role he played to retain the services of James McAtee at Manchester City beyond the last summer market.

The 22-year-old attacking midfielder was retained by the Premier League champions after consecutive loan spells at Sheffield United, with Pep Guardiola reportedly insistent on the playmaker joining his first-team roster.

Fast forward to the second-half of the season and McAtee has managed just four starts for the club in that time, including the FA Community Shield win over Manchester United, raising serious doubts over his own future.

The midfielder has attracted attention from numerous Bundesliga clubs as well as sides from across the Premier League, and it remains to be seen whether the second-half of the campaign will see the player starring elsewhere in Europe.

Also included in the second-half of Pep Guardiola’s pre-Brentford press conference was further updates on Kyle Walker’s future at Manchester City, as well as the latest on John Stones’ recovery from injury.

Following the release of the embargoed section of Guardiola’s pre-match press conference, here is every single word from the Manchester City manager speaking to reporters at the City Football Academy on Monday afternoon!

On whether it is ‘odd’ for the captain of the team to ask mid-season to leave the club

“I don’t add anything about that. So, what’s going to happen is going to happen. At the end of the transfer window, if he stays we’ll be happy he stays, if he has to leave, it will happen. The rest, I don’t want to add anything else. Brentford is my priority right now.”

On whether he is confident in his right-back options

“Yeah.”

Reaction to a list of staggered Manchester City departures from Yaya Toure through to Sergio Aguero

“Did you study, huh? Did you prepare well?”

On the potential for several big name departures to happen in one go

“No, not for me (it’s a big, new challenge). We knew it at the beginning of the season that the team, for a question of time, will have 10 or 11 players with more than 30 years-old. But this is the same team over 30 years-old that has won four, five, six months ago a Premier League, four in a row, the final of the FA Cup, quarter-final of the Champions League.

“So the team, but we knew it that sooner or later it should have done. What happened was unexpected, but it happened. In modern football, for many, many clubs, the amount of injuries that we have, I didn’t expect it what happened and happened a lot.

“And that’s why the process that we have done, you said before with all the incredible legend players that have been here, soon step by step they have to change. And the best way is gradually, yes.

“But also in the first year, I would say, we arrived with the same concept, and in the second season we made an incredible changes, maybe eight or nine players left, and arrived a lot. Now I think it cannot happen, because the inflation in football rose unbelievably.

“But sooner or later it’s normal, a question of time new players, young players will come, I don’t know now, I don’t know in the summer, I don’t know next seasons. But in the next two or three, the club has to of course to do for a question of age.”

On losing two or three key players of the past seven or eight years in one go

“I would say that in the summer time, the club thought about doing it and I said, ‘No, I don’t want to make any signings. I want to rely on the team, and I want to stay with them’. And just Savio came, (Ilkay) Gundo back – it was unexpected at the end, but he came back.

“But just Savio came, because I said I rely a lot with these guys and I thought that still I can do it again, do it again with that guys and do it. But after the injuries, ‘WOW! Maybe we should have done it’, but you never know!

“But I think the team is really good and the squad is really, really good. I had that feeling; central defenders are exceptional, the full-backs are exceptional, and all the players that we had, otherwise we could not achieve what we achieved in RECENT years, not in the four or five or six years ago. Last season! But it is what it is, so…”

On the potential difference for him this summer that he could lose multiple big names in one window

“I don’t know. What is pretty sure right now who we are at the end of the season, maybe they continue all of them! Maybe we’ll stay with absolutely all the players here and add the players that we believe maybe we can do it.

“So at the end of the season is the end of the season. How are we going to decide; the performance of them. That will dictate what we have to do.”

On the importance from the club’s point of view to sign much younger players (19, 20, 21) with amazing potential for the future of the club, as well as signing players in their prime (25, 26, 27, 28)

“Yeah I don’t know what is the market, I don’t know what the club decides, which scouting department and what is the best players to add. Sometimes what is important is how they will perform in the future. It doesn’t matter if you are 24, 27, 18, or 19 years-old.

“Of course for Ferran (Soriano) I would say it’s better younger because of course they can split the budget, and after future sales it’s much better. But as a manager, I want to perform the players who arrive as quick as possible, because in modern football, in the big clubs, everywhere, they need to perform quick!

“People don’t wait. ‘Oh next season, in two seasons they will be good!’ Pfft. Nobody knows where they will be in two seasons. What they want is tomorrow try to win against Brentford. This is the reality in football.”

On whether James McAtee will remain at the club 100 per cent this month

“I would love to say categorically yes, but I don’t know. I would love! But at the same time, I don’t know. But I would love him to stay, yeah! I was the one who said if in Sheffield he doesn’t play, come here! I was the one to say, maybe a loan no, I want Macca here!

“Of course he didn’t play much minutes so far, and I understand that, but I was the one that said I want James here with us. What happened when they ask me all the time about the future and I don’t answer, it’s because I don’t know exactly. The same happens with James.”

On whether a positive run of results away to Brentford, Ipswich, and Paris Saint-Germain can change the outlook on the season and the mood of players/fans

“Listen, we were not able to win a game from the last month, month and a half, so… I’ve said many times, we have a perspective from the last month that’s not really good in terms of results, even the performance was not good.

“But I judge that I’ve been a manager and 485 or 480 games have been outstanding; we lost some games but we won a lot. And with perspective, we made 10, 12, 13 not really good results and that isn’t going to define my perspective about those players, all together what we have done from this period.

“And that’s why it’s not going to change the fact that we won the last three games or what’s going to happen in the next three games. Next, my mind always has been like that, my mind is Brentford.

“So I cannot expect to think about much further than that because I know how difficult it is, I know the top form of Ipswich right now, Paris what can I say. So it’s one at a time, which players we have available, because the last two months always has been like this, the line-up was in the last moment – this player can play a few minutes, this player can play or don’t play, and after I already decide.

“This is the truth.”

On whether the injury/fitness situation is easing

“Absolutely! The question has been answered mostly through common sense. I said this time; all the success we had in the past with the domestic quadruple, treble, leagues and FA Cup finals and semi-finals all the time is because we had injuries but not much. We were few!

“And there are a lot of reasons for the injuries. Maybe you lose focus, maybe you are getting old, maybe we train differently, more or less intense because we don’t have players, for many, many details that I don’t have an answer.

“Of course we thought about that and what is the reason why in the past we didn’t have much and now we have this season a lot. I would like to know the real answer is that there are little, little, little details that we were so stable in that for incredible departments that we have that we could not sustain that.

“But of course, as much players we have back, they will be better.”

On John Stones’ situation

“I spoke with him now, and he said he feels better. But in the past always he felt better and just can play 40 minutes, 45 minutes so that’s why maybe we have to take a little bit longer to be sure that when he comes back he cannot make a step back – this is the situation with John.”

On the reoccurring injuries to John Stones

“It’s not easy for him! It’s not easy for them! They make the effort to come back to try it. I ask to make effort against (Manchester) United, and they helped us for a while the players and at the end they could not play more than 45 and that is not good.

“At the end you have to recover well, need more time and more time, it’s a risk to lose games without them, yeah, it happened this season. So it’s important that when you come back, you can make games and games and being ready to play every three days.”

On right-back options apart from Rico Lewis

“I’m so clever! I’m such a talented manager to find the right solution… Listen, Kyle (Walker) is our player, right now. So that’s all. So we have that option. What’s going to happen, I don’t know.”