Kelechi: I want to stay and fight for my place at Blues
KELECHI Iheanacho says he wants to stay at City and fight for his place.
The 20-year-old has fallen down the pecking order at the Etihad since Pep Guardiola arrived last summer.
But the striker has admitted he wants to remain at the Blues and fight his way back into the Catalan’s plans.
The Nigerian international has been linked with a move to West Ham, but when asked if he saw himself as a City player next season he responded with one word: “Definitely.”
He added: “I don’t know about that news (about transfers). All I know is that I’m still at Manchester City, I’m still a Manchester City player so all the news that’s going on about teams wanting to buy me, I try not to know about that.
“People will go on holiday and we will see. It’s not only me that hasn’t been playing, there’s other players.
“The manager rotates the players and squad so that everyone gets game time. So I shouldn’t be complaining that I’m not getting game.
“We are one squad and we are a full squad so everyone is not going to be playing at the same time.”
Iheanacho made just five Premier League starts last season and only one start in any competition in 2017 – even though Gabriel Jesus was out injured for nearly three months.
Even taking into account his substitute appearance, Iheanacho has only played 153 minutes of football in this calendar year.
And he admitted that the season did not go to plan.
He said: “When you are playing well and doing well in the team you expect to play more. But unfortunately it didn’t go as planned so we did not win any silverware this season, but we really fight like a team.
“It is not the season we really wanted but it wasn’t a bad season for our team.
“What we will do is go back and prepare for next season and make sure we get silverware next season.”
Iheanacho’s admission about his City future comes just a few days after his agent told a Nigerian website that talks with West Ham were ‘very advanced.’
It has been reported West Ham are prepared to pay around £20m to sign the Nigerian international.
However, it is understood there could be a delay to his deal while a legal dispute with his former agent is resolved.
A judgement in that case is anticipated within the next two weeks.