Bern still fired up for success with the Blues
THE only time Bernardo Silva mentioned Barcelona in his revealing interview this week was in an answer about Pep Guardiola’s demands in City training.
He spoke about his uncertainty over his Blues future, but didn’t refer to Barca as a possible destination - even though they are the club trying to sign him and have made no secret of the fact they want to tempt him away from the Etihad.
While most of the attention will rightly surround his admission that he doesn’t know where his future lies, there was plenty of interesting insight into life at City from Bernardo.
There was his admission that the club’s Champions League exits have taken something away from winning Premier League titles, his insistence that the Blues players don’t get the credit they deserve and his early impressions of Erling Haaland.
Maybe more significant, though, were his answers about how Guardiola keeps City’s intensity so high every year.
“He doesn’t allow you to have a day off. That’s the standard that we have at City, and that’s why the level has been so high over the past five season,” he said of the Blues boss.
“Having a manager that demands so much from you puts you on high alert knowing that if you don’t give 100 per cent, you’re not going to play.
“Everyone knows if you want to play, you have to give your best and to show it on the pitch.
“Sometimes it’s very tiring and stressful, I won’t deny it. But that’s football at the highest level. If you want to play for a big club like Man City and a club that fights for all the titles, you’re going to have this.
“It’s not just Man City - I believe that in Liverpool, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Juventus, you’re going to have this competitiveness around the dressing room because the squad is great and you know if you don’t give your best, you have a guy next to you who is just as good as you and is going to take your place.”
That was the only time he spoke about Barcelona explicitly, and while it underlines that he still views the financially-stricken Spanish club an elite side, he is also aware his place is never guaranteed at City.
Despite including the Catalans in his list, he would know his would be the first name on the teamsheet at Camp Nou.
Discussing the Premier League and Champions League, Bernardo again reiterated the need for absolute focus all of the time. If there are any bad runs in the league, or a bad few minutes in Europe, the chances of winning those competitions are gone.
Again, he knows at City with Guardiola, that message will be reinforced and guaranteed - as he said himself with his answer about the manager’s training standards.
He may be homesick in Manchester, but surely he will know the same levels don’t exist at Barcelona, or at least they haven’t translated onto the Camp Nou pitch in recent seasons.
“Of course, being there for five years changes the amount of impact you have on the dressing room than if you’ve been at the club for six months,” he added in response to a question about leadership.
“Definitely being there for a long time, I know everyone at the club, all the staff and it feels really good.”
This is a player who is openly discussing being a leader in City’s dressing room, looking ahead to winning trophies with them this
season, defending his team-mates for a lack of external recognition and outlining how Guardiola maintains the standards within his squad.
He spoke about Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus, who were allowed to leave if they ‘weren’t happy.’
However, those two players were in different situations to Bernardo, who knows he has a very good chance of being in City’s strongest starting XI if he meets Guardiola’s expectations.
Sterling and Jesus were always having to fight to show Guardiola they were worthy of a starting spot Bernardo’s role is far more integral to the team, so his value to City is higher.
So it’s encouraging to read that Bernardo acknowledges the business side of his situation - that the Blues will require a suitable fee for one of their best players.
And it’s even more encouraging to hear him talk about winning another Premier League title this season and starting the current campaign strongly.
“It looks like we’re going to have two Premier Leagues: one before and one after (the World Cup),” he said.
“We’re not going to win anything in these months, but we can lose it all so our job now is to make sure we don’t lose it and are able to fight for all of it in the last six months of the season.”
It sounds like Bernardo knows where his best chance of winning trophies lies, and it’s not at Barcelona.