Pep Guardiola has said Kevin De Bruyne will not leave Manchester City this summer. The Saudi Pro League club Al-Ittihad had the Belgian in their sights and De Bruyne, who has a year on his contract, last month admitted he could be tempted by the “incredible amounts of money” on offer elsewhere.
Guardiola, speaking before City’s friendly against Celtic in North Carolina, said: “Kevin isn’t going.”
The manager, whose only summer signing has been the winger Savinho, went on to say: “If someone leaves, we’re going to talk about that. Of course, until the last day, we have chances [to make transfers]. I don’t rule it out the option to have new players but I think there is an 85-90% chance we will have the same squad.
“I feel comfortable, because the quality of human beings we have in the squad is difficult to be replaced, and the quality is there. But we’ll see. I don’t know in the last moment if someone comes for some players and they leave, we’re going to decide.”
Last month De Bruyne told the Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws he was fond of the idea of a lucrative payday in the latter stages of his career. “At my age you have to be open to everything,” he said. “You’re talking about incredible amounts of money in what may be the end of my career. Sometimes you have to think about that.”