Kyle Walker asked to leave Manchester City this month "to play abroad and end his career," according to Pep Guardiola, who made the tactical choice to leave Walker out of his team for the FA Cup third-round victory against Salford City before to the game.
Walker has struggled for Man City this season, and in recent weeks, he has been connected to a move to Saudi Arabia. Before the game, City manager Guardiola was questioned about interest from the Middle East, but he did not reveal anything in his response.
The Spaniard did, however, reveal Walker's desire to depart this month following the 8-0 victory over the League Two team, which is owned by six former Manchester United players.
Currently serving as club captain, he has amassed an incredible 17 titles throughout his tenure under Guardiola.
Walker was not present during City's resounding victory over Salford on Saturday, in which James McAtee scored a hat-trick. Guardiola spoke passionately about the "special player" following the victory.
"We finally prevailed by a sizable margin, with all due respect to Salford." We were clinically upfront and pleased with the performance, even though the man marking was challenging," Pep stated.
He is a unique player, and I'm very thrilled for him (McAtee). Hat-tricks are difficult to score. Although he got out to a somewhat lackluster start, he now possesses amazing goal-scoring ability. He altered the rhythm to score and has the perfect speed.
Therefore, I'm very thrilled for him and Nico O'Reilly, who was playing left-back, a position he had never played before. In that position, we have a lot of issues. We had the option of playing Rico [Lewis] or Josko [Gvardiol], but they need to recover from the volume of upcoming games and their prior experience.
"[McAtee] can obviously play better. Although he can play better, he scored three goals. Although he didn't play at his best in the first half, his work ethic, poise, and rhythm make him a unique talent.
"Jeremy [Doku] performed incredibly well, making everyone very happy."
Kyle asked to look into playing overseas and ending his career two days ago, Guardiola stated. “He went to (director of football) Txiki Begiristain. For that reason I prefer to play (players) whose mind is here.
"Walker’s preference is unclear, but a move to the Saudi Pro League should be alluring given the possible financial stakes. The 34-year-old England right-back has played 319 times for City since joining from Tottenham for £50 million in July 2017.
One of the greatest players at the academy from the generation of Jadon Sancho, Cole Palmer, Morgan Rogers, and Liam Delap, he has been a City supporter for a long time. He was the captain of the group he played with.
"I'm so happy that he's here with us."
Comments