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Bernardo Silva makes huge admission over Man City’s future.
Bernardo Silva has acknowledged that he will speak with Manchester City about his future at the end of the current season and that he is ready to quit the team if the appropriate offer comes around.
Silva has long been tipped to leave City and has not been completely settled in Manchester for a good few seasons now, with a handful of La Liga sides previously exploring ways to lure the 28-year-old away from the Etihad.
In fact, mp3bullet believes that Barcelona, who made an attempt to sign Silva last summer, is still committed to signing the Portugal international in 2023 if they can raise the necessary funds to finance a transfer.
In a candid interview with Record, Silva did not hide his interest in leaving City, suggesting this season could be his last in England.
“I’m very focused on this season and it doesn’t make sense to talk about leaving because we’re in the middle of the season,” he said.
“I’ve been at Manchester City for almost six years, I have a lot of respect for the club, news keeps coming out and people know that there have been talks between me and the club and, at the end of the season, we’ll talk again to see what’s best for the two sides.
“I’m focused on winning more titles for City. We want to win the league again, we have a competition that we have never won and that is a great objective, which is the Champions League, so we want to try again.”
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Silva continued: “I’m 28 years old, I’ll be 29 in the summer, and I have two more years on my Manchester City contract. My contract would end at 31. I won’t hide that my goal in the coming years, if something good happens elsewhere, will probably be to move to a new project.
“Going into a new project at the age of 29, I’ll only finish this contract probably at 34. If you ask me: what did you think 10 years ago? My goal was to return to Benfica at the age of 32 at the most. What do I think today? It depends on what happens next summer.
“I’m not going to lie: it’s not something I don’t think about. I think about it every year. It has always been a goal. I couldn’t fulfil my dream of playing for Benfica when I was 19, 20 years old, but I still want to fulfil it. It’s something I think about.
“When I was about to leave Manchester City two years ago, that would go right, at 32. Now it won’t go right. If I leave, and I don’t know if that will happen, a club that pays what City want for me won’t give me a three-year contract, they will give me a five-year contract. And I’d already be 34 years old.
“Being very realistic: for Bernardo to leave Manchester City for Benfica, or to leave another great European for Benfica, I cannot leave with two or three years on his contract, because Benfica do not have the money to pay these clubs; I have to go free. I’m in a difficult situation that I have to manage, but we’ll see what happens.”
The manager of Barcelona, Xavi, is known to be a big fan of Silva and wanted to recruit the Portugal international last summer, but the cash-strapped Blaugrana were unable to raise the funds to do so.
Pep Guardiola has consistently maintained that he would be willing to allow Silva or any other unsatisfied player to leave City, but only if the appropriate deal came in.