GONE STONES?

Pep offers no assurances on defender’s future

PEP GUARDIOLA has refused to give John Stones guarantees over his Manchester City future.

Stones (right) has fallen down the central-defensive pecking order at City and is now behind Aymeric Laporte, Fernandinho, Nicolas Otamendi and Eric Garcia.

Injuries have made this a season to forget for Stones, who has made just 10 Premier League starts and not featured at all since football resumed last month.

The 26-year-old, who joined City from Everton for £50million in 2016 and has two years left on his contract, has been linked with a return to his old club this summer.

With City poised to sign a centre-half to partner Laporte, Stones is likely to be off-loaded to make way for the new arrival. “After two or three training sessions he was injured and didn’t train until last week,” said Guardiola, who confirmed Stones will play tonight against Newcastle at the Etihad.

“Of course, what we want is for him to come back and play and to be able to play two, three or four months with no injuries. We’ll speak at the end of the season. If we have to change players, we’ll tell them. He’s a young player and we want him to be consistent.

“There are players who can play every three days, but others who struggle to be fit – we have to try to find the key to him playing every three days.”

Guardiola has warned City they must rediscover their killer instinct if they want to win the Champions League and FA Cup.

City slumped to a ninth Premier

League defeat of the season with a 1-0 loss at Southampton.

Guardiola (above) fears City will go out to Real Madrid in the Champions League and Arsenal in the FA Cup semifinals unless they are more ruthless. “We’re at the point where we sometimes make mistakes in games,” he said,

“In some cases, with the lack of scoring, the other teams punish us. The games against Madrid and Arsenal are the reality for our team.

“If it happens like it did at Southampton and in other games, like Tottenham home and away, and Norwich away, we’ll be out. This is the reality we have to accept.”