Man City want Brahim Diaz deal... but Pep Guardiola warns Real Madrid target

Guardiola on Diaz: "If he doesn’t want to stay, he has to leave"
Getty Images

Pep Guardiola has given the clearest indication Manchester City are set to lose Brahim Diaz.

The Catalan claims City have done all they can to keep hold of one of the brightest prospects in Europe.

Real Madrid are closing in on the playmaker - who is out of contract at the end of the season - with suggestions he could leave the Etihad as early as January.

Guardiola has already seen Jadon Sancho walk away from the Premier League champions due to a lack of first-team opportunities, and on Friday sounded resigned to losing another starlet.

The City manager said: "The case of Brahim is very simple: we want him to stay, we want to extend his contract for four or five years and we’ll do absolutely everything to keep him here. But as I said before it’s in his hands.

"My advice is: If he doesn’t want to stay, he has to leave."

Diaz scored twice to send Fulham out of the EFL Cup.
Getty Images

Diaz has long been considered the future at City, along with Foden and Sancho.

But the Spaniard has grown frustrated by his lack of first team football. And with so many star names ahead of him, he has refused City’s attempts to tie him down to a long-term deal.

Guardiola added: "They cannot say we didn’t do absolutely everything to take care of them, him and his families - like a human being, like a person, like a football player.

"It’s incredible how the academy works with these guys, taking care of them, teaching them what they need to be a high standard for a long time, but at the end they decide.

"We cannot push more than we pushed with Brahim for example or with the other ones. They arrive as young kids, but the market is the market."

Foden and Guardiola.
AFP/Getty Images

Despite the City hierarchy’s determination to provide a pathway for their home-grown talents, Guardiola claims it is a natural consequence of having a star-studded squad that rising starlets become impatient. But he warned Diaz his opportunities may not be improved away from City.

"At Barcelona there were many many players, for example Cesc Fabregas wanted to leave and go to Arsenal," he said. "All we can do is speak with the families, find out what they want to do with these guys, we tell them the truth, how complicated it is in some periods.

"How many young players are playing at 18 or 19 in the big clubs in Europe and the world and playing every week? Maybe one – (Kylian) Mbappe but not the other ones.

Jadon Sancho in action for England
Action Images via Reuters

"(David) Silva, for example, came away and was young, he went from Valencia to Eibar in the second division.

"We try to speak to them about what is the intention, but in the end they sleep on their own and they decide with their families. What can we do? More than we have done? No way.

"The club did perfectly in all cases, but the desire is the desire. Maybe they visualise they are going to play and believe in other places they are going to play. Maybe, maybe not. We will see."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in