Pep Guardiola admitted Jack Grealish's Manchester City future remains unclear following the decision to leave him out of his squad for the Club World Cup.
The City manager appeared to have opened the door for Grealish to leave the Etihad Stadium when he axed him from the 27-man group for this summer’s expanded 32-team tournament in the US.
That decision came after Grealish, a £100 million signing from Aston Villa four years ago and one of the leading stars of the 2023 treble success, endured a troubled 2024-25 season, making just seven Premier League starts.
But Guardiola, while offering no guarantees about the England midfielder’s prospects at City, says his absence is more about giving him time away to regroup.
Speaking ahead of City’s tournament opener against Moroccan side Wydad Casablanca on Wednesday night (8pm UAE) in Philadelphia, Guardiola said: “He had a conversation with the club and decided the best. Jack is an exceptional player but he didn’t [play a lot]. We decided he has to play.
“We’re honest and he’s honest. We decided the best was to stay [behind] and find that he can play, that he can come back to the player of the year of the treble and all his career at Aston Villa.
“But the fact is he didn’t play much minutes the last two seasons. He has to come back to play and have the butterflies in his stomach that he can play every three days and show again the quality that he has.
“We decided don’t come here. What happens, I don’t know, but if he doesn’t [leave] he is a player for Man City and he will be back.”
Guardiola denied this meant he felt Grealish no longer has a hunger for the game, but said he failed to compete with his teammates and did not deserve to be picked.
He said: “The reason he didn’t play is my decisions. Football is competing with each other – not just Jack, all of them.
“They compete [for] who deserves to play. The butterflies are an example of the tension and they happen for all the players.
“Over the last two years he didn’t play much and I take responsibility for that, but he has to play and we reflected that it was better not to come here.”
Another player not involved in the US is England right-back Kyle Walker, who spent the second half of last season on loan at AC Milan and appears set to leave the club.
The 35-year-old has been linked with Everton but Guardiola was unwilling to discuss the matter.
He said: “I don’t have any news. It’s the same case for Jack. About the links with other teams, you have to ask [director of football] Hugo [Viana].”
WAC will 'make it hard' for City
Wydad coach Amine Benhachem has promised that his team will compete with Manchester City in their opening game at the Club World Cup despite being rank outsiders.
"It is going to be a difficult match, let's not kid ourselves - Manchester City, enough said," Benhachem said on the eve of the game. "This is going to be hard, but we have our chances. We have our way of playing and we can at least compete."
Wydad are one of the giants of North African football and qualified for Fifa's new competition as a recent winner of the CAF Champions League. However, they had a disappointing season in Morocco, finishing third in their domestic league.
That performance led to them parting company with South Africa-born coach Rulani Mokwena, with Benhachem replacing him in the dugout.
"We want to make it hard for them. The intensity will be there and we do have our own ambitions," he added of the game at Lincoln Financial Field against the 2023 UEFA Champions League winners.
Wydad will also face Italian giants Juventus and Al Ain in Group G, with the top two advancing to the last 16.
"The central part is that any opponent we face will not be comfortable. We are ready and we have surprises for our opponents," Benhachem said.
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ICC Women's T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier 2025, Thailand
UAE fixtures
May 9, v Malaysia
May 10, v Qatar
May 13, v Malaysia
May 15, v Qatar
May 18 and 19, semi-finals
May 20, final
Most wanted allegations
- Benjamin Macann, 32: involvement in cocaine smuggling gang.
- Jack Mayle, 30: sold drugs from a phone line called the Flavour Quest.
- Callum Halpin, 27: over the 2018 murder of a rival drug dealer.
- Asim Naveed, 29: accused of being the leader of a gang that imported cocaine.
- Calvin Parris, 32: accused of buying cocaine from Naveed and selling it on.
- John James Jones, 31: allegedly stabbed two people causing serious injuries.
- Callum Michael Allan, 23: alleged drug dealing and assaulting an emergency worker.
- Dean Garforth, 29: part of a crime gang that sold drugs and guns.
- Joshua Dillon Hendry, 30: accused of trafficking heroin and crack cocain.
- Mark Francis Roberts, 28: grievous bodily harm after a bungled attempt to steal a £60,000 watch.
- James ‘Jamie’ Stevenson, 56: for arson and over the seizure of a tonne of cocaine.
- Nana Oppong, 41: shot a man eight times in a suspected gangland reprisal attack.
Global Fungi Facts
• Scientists estimate there could be as many as 3 million fungal species globally
• Only about 160,000 have been officially described leaving around 90% undiscovered
• Fungi account for roughly 90% of Earth's unknown biodiversity
• Forest fungi help tackle climate change, absorbing up to 36% of global fossil fuel emissions annually and storing around 5 billion tonnes of carbon in the planet's topsoil
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
