Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca has spoken about the possibility of further departures from the club, with several high-profile players being linked with moves away.
James Trafford is the latest player to leave the Etihad in recent days. The England goalkeeper has joined Leeds United in a £40 million deal, following the summer exits of experienced trio Bernardo Silva, John Stones and Nathan Ake.
“There are players that unfortunately, like James, last year didn’t play a lot,” Maresca explained. “At the end, players work every day to get minutes and play games.
“When they don’t play, it’s normal that probably they’re sad, they want to play more, and probably this is James’ case.
“The club was happy with him, everyone was happy with him, but at the end probably he was probably looking for more games.”
More departures could still follow as well. The futures of Savinho, Tijjani Reijnders, Omar Marmoush, Mateo Kovacic and Jack Grealish, among others, are still not clear.
The City manager continued: “The only thing I’ve said since we started to the players is that for me it’s a new reset.
“All of them, they all start at the same level and the pre-season will dictate a little bit the transfer window.
“This has been a general message for all of them. The ones that played more minutes last year or the ones that played less minutes.
“But at the end, the message has been the same for everyone. For me it’s a reset.”
Rodri has also been strongly linked with a move away from the Etihad, in what could become one of the biggest transfers of the summer. Spain’s World Cup-winning captain had been pursued by Real Madrid, but Barcelona now appear to be in front in the race for the midfielder.
The Catalan side have already had an opening offer for the 30-year-old turned down.
“Everyone in this room, everyone in the world knows how good of a player Rodri is,” said team-mate Rico Lewis. “But it’s football, people leave, people stay.
“Obviously I don’t know every detail about this, but it’s football. I don’t think it changes the landscape of anything the manager wants to do here.
“Everyone knows how good of a player he is and that shows with his accolades. But yeah, we’ll see.”
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