Manchester City fans choose England’s regular as a player they want to be sold

In Manchester City, there is a unity between the coach and the fans, or it seems like it. In a big survey conducted by a local „Manchester Evening News“, vast majority of fans opted for two players they want to be sold: Benjamin Mendy and Raheem Sterling, the same players who had difficult seasons and were overlooked by coach Pep Guardiola.

Revived Sterling and Southgate's avengers pay off the old debt

The French left back certainly didn’t live up to his expectations since 2017, when he arrived at City for a 8 billion Ksh from Monaco. Mendy has the knowledge and physical tools for the position, but his injuries and disciplinary issues proved to be too much. Mendy has featured just 73 times in four seasons for the club (20 in all competitions last season) and Oleksandr Zinchenko surpased the Frenchman. With both Joao Cancelo and Nathan Ake capable of playing at the position in a case of need, it is clear that Mendy will be sold, since his contract runs out next season, and the fans are thinking the same: only 8.6% wants him to stay.

Kevin De Bruyne voted PFA Player of the Year

In August 2018, Goal revealed that Mendy had been fined for being late to training ahead of the Premier League opener at Arsenal, while Guardiola has made him move out of his city center apartment to avoid any off-field distractions. In October, the injured left-back turned up nearly three hours late for a recovery session on his bruised metatarsal. As soon as Mendy walked through the door Guardiola told him to get back out.

Solid rock at the back: Ruben Dias is 2020/21 Premier League Player of the Season

The other name which got the most votes in the „sell him“ column is an England regular and recent scorer in a EURO 2020 win over Croatia – Raheem Sterling. To be fair, the survey was taken before the match, but it’s still an interesting choice. Sterling scored more goals than anyone else during Guardiola’s time in Manchester, and yet, after one difficult season for City, the fans are thinking that his lightning speed and goal thread is not needed anymore. Former Liverpool player has two more years in his contract and will surely want a pay rise with a possible contract extension.

At the opposite end of the scale, Phil Foden was the player most fans chose to keep around with 98% picking to keep him in comparison to 97.6% for Kevin De Bruyne and 96.5% for Ruben Dias.