Adrian Durham urged Manchester City defender John Stones to have crunch talks with manager Pep Guardiola about his future.
The broadcaster claimed that the Man City centre-back has to ensure he gets regular first-team football in his 2019/20 campaign as he needs to start proving how good he is in order to make England’s squad for the European Championships next summer.
Durham added that if Guardiola doesn’t reassure Stones that he will be a regular member of his first-team, then the defender needs to think about leaving.
“John Stone needs a big season, is he even going to play at Man City?” said Durham on talkSPORT (16:12, Monday June 10th).
“He needs to have a sit down with Pep Guardiola as soon as possible and say ‘Am I regular?”
“If not, he needs to think about a move, if he is going to be in England’s team next summer, he needs to start proving how good he is.”
OPINION
Durham is surely stirring the pot with his remarks on Stones as the 25-year-old clearly doesn’t need to think about having emergency talks with Guardiola. Stones, who earns £100,000-a-week (Source: Spotrac), featured 39 times across all competitions for Man City in his latest campaign and started 53% of the club’s league games (Source: Transfermarkt). Granted Stones should probably ask Guardiola to consider playing him more after Vincent Kompany’s exit, but the manager will only likely grant that wish if the defender impresses him in training. When you consider that starting 53% of Man City’s league games is no easy feat given the competition for a first-team place, clearly the manager rates him. Stones can prove he is good enough for England if he sticks around at Man City as he will be given opportunities, it’s just up to him take them. So Durham should stop urging the defender to sit down with Guardiola ASAP, as there’s no real issue.