Pep Guardiola has expressed his feelings about Bernardo Silva’s impending exit from Manchester City, stating that a “part of myself is leaving too” when the Portugal playmaker departs.
Silva confirmed on Thursday that he will leave the club at the end of the season when his contract expires. He departs after nine years in which he won many trophies.
Guardiola’s High Regard for Silva
Guardiola hopes Silva can add to his 19 honours before he exits. City are aiming to win the Premier League and FA Cup to complete a domestic treble.
Speaking before the match against Arsenal, Guardiola insisted Silva will continue to play a vital role for the remainder of the season.
When asked if Silva’s departure was the hardest goodbye for him, Guardiola said: “Absolutely. When these types of players are going, and there have been many in the last years, part of myself is leaving too.”
“It will be difficult imagining [the club] without him. He made an incredible statement during nine years and he has been massively, massively, massively important.”
Guardiola added, “Hopefully we can deliver to him, he’s going to help us, I know that. He’s a special player, hopefully we can deliver a good month, a few days, because he deserves it, he deserves the best.”
“We’ve won 19 titles together, we are still challenging for two more and we are going for it, that’s for sure. We are looking forward to the start and do our best.”
Departures and New Faces at City
Silva has scored 76 goals and made 77 assists in 451 appearances at City. He joins Kyle Walker, Ilkay Gündogan, Éderson and Kevin de Bruyne as long-serving players to leave the club in the last 12 months.
Guardiola rejected suggestions that they can go into the title run-in with more conviction than Arsenal.
He noted the recent changes in the squad: “Ederson, Kevin, Gundo, Kyle and Manuel [Akanji, who is on a season-long loan at Inter Milan] and a lot of players who made a lot of things here are not here any more.”
Guardiola mentioned new players, such as Rayan Cherki and Tijjani Reijnders, who were signed last summer, with Antoine Semenyo and Marc Guéhi following in January. Nico O’Reilly and Abdukodir Khusanov are now first-team regulars.
“Most of them are new and we will see. Cherki, for example, has never won the Premier League so we don’t know how he is going to behave in that position.”
“Khusanov has never been here, Nico is the first season where he is really there, Antoine arrived a month ago, Marc Guehi arrived a few weeks ago.”
“There are a lot of players wh