Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola believes Brahim Diaz's departure for Real Madrid is a sign of good work being done by the club.
City had attempted to persuade the 19-year-old Spaniard to extend his contract with the club he joined aged 14, but conceded defeat this week and sold him to Madrid in a deal which could rise to £22 million (Dh103m).
Asked if he was disappointed to lose Diaz, Guardiola said: "No. I said many times, we did with Brahim the same we did with Phil [Foden] and Jadon [Sancho], we did absolutely everything but in the end the only one who decides to stay is Phil so that's all.
"We wish him all the best. Of course going to Real Madrid is not a bad step and hopefully he can get the minutes he didn't get in the last period for many reasons. Nice guy.
"On the other side, again, congratulations for our academy, they are working so well and in the end this is what happens, important teams in Europe want to sign our players because it's working really well."
Wednesday's League Cup semi-final first leg against Burton is the sort of match in which Diaz might have expected to make one of his rare first-team appearances, and Guardiola conceded it was too soon to say if his team might be short-handed if they continue to progress in several competitions.
"Hopefully not," he said. "With four competitions still, everybody will play, everybody will be involved. We have games every three or four days. We need everybody."
The League Cup was the first trophy Guardiola lifted in England, but he acknowledged it was low on the priority order.
"Winning is important, we cannot deny it, we are here in the semi-finals and it's one step to go back to Wembley, that's why we take it seriously in that game once we are here," he said.
"It's true the Carabao Cup is the more local competition. Everybody is happy to win but nobody is sad if they go out in that competition. Once we are here, we are going to try."
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Meanwhile, Guardiola rejected claims he had ordered the grass to be grown longer at Etihad Stadium ahead of last week's 2-1 win over Liverpool which reignited the Premier League title race.
"I am not the groundskeeper," he said. "I never did. If they want to play quick, we want to play quicker. Always we try to put water [on the pitch] but it's not necessary here with the weather. We want to cut the field always.
"It's better conditions for both teams. When this happens, you do the best for your opponents. We have to respect them with the rules.
"I never speak with the groundsmen...I trust the groundsmen. I never made a phone call to say 'do this to damage our opponents'."
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Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
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MWTC info
Tickets to the MWTC range from Dh100 and can be purchased from www.ticketmaster.ae or by calling 800 86 823 from within the UAE or 971 4 366 2289 from outside the country and all Virgin Megastores. Fans looking to attend all three days of the MWTC can avail of a special 20 percent discount on ticket prices.
Key findings of Jenkins report
- Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
- Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
- Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
- Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."
Three tips from La Perle's performers
1 The kind of water athletes drink is important. Gwilym Hooson, a 28-year-old British performer who is currently recovering from knee surgery, found that out when the company was still in Studio City, training for 12 hours a day. “The physio team was like: ‘Why is everyone getting cramps?’ And then they realised we had to add salt and sugar to the water,” he says.
2 A little chocolate is a good thing. “It’s emergency energy,” says Craig Paul Smith, La Perle’s head coach and former Cirque du Soleil performer, gesturing to an almost-empty open box of mini chocolate bars on his desk backstage.
3 Take chances, says Young, who has worked all over the world, including most recently at Dragone’s show in China. “Every time we go out of our comfort zone, we learn a lot about ourselves,” she says.
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