Guardiola will retain faith in Stones, even if Everton fans get under his skin
John Stones will return to Everton today for the first time since his £47 million summer move to Manchester City a richer, but not necessarily better, player than he was when he used to wear a darker shade of blue.
Stones continues to make mistakes, continues to divide opinion, yet he remains indulged. At Everton, it was the club’s former manager, Roberto Martínez, who saw past the errors and called him world class. At City, it is Pep Guardiola who believes the 22-year-old will one day become one of the finest centre-backs in the world.
They may well be right. Stones has the potential to become a master of his art, but he remains a work in progress and Everton supporters, still sore that he left – regardless of the size of the fee the club received – will mercilessly remind him of that fact. They will hope to goad him into a blunder.
Guardiola is confident the abuse will have no impact on Stones’s state of mind, but even if he did suffer on his first return to Goodison Park, the Spaniard will keep praising and protecting.
Stones was signed by City because their new manager demanded it in the summer. Regardless of any his fluctuations in form, Stones is the player Guardiola intends to construct a new defence around, the building block at the back that will provide the foundation for a younger, fresher City side.
Stones is the future of Manchester City, but many of those around him are starting to look like the past. With the likes of Bacary Sagna, 33, Pablo Zabaleta, 31, Aleksandar Kolorov, 31, and Yaya Touré, 33, all entering the final six months of their contract, Guardiola refuses to be drawn on whether they will be offered new ones.
He has not ruled anything out, but he is also mindful of the fact he inherited an ageing squad and players who are either in decline or on the verge of it. That is why he was so desperate to get Stones, even if it meant spending so much money on a player who is still learning.
“Last season, Manchester City’s was the oldest squad in the Premier League and one of the oldest squads in Europe,” said Guardiola.
“Most of the [older] players made the club what it is today in the Premier League and they have helped create the next step in Europe, so people talk about Manchester City as one of the big clubs. But you cannot compete with the best with just young players and you can’t compete with just old players, so we are trying to evolve.
“The old players, Zabaleta, Bacary, Yaya, Kolorov, they have played absolutely amazing, but we have to decide.
“The club is not about one season, or even the next season, it is about the next five or 10 years. You have to change the team – it is normal.
“I have to see how their performance is at the end of the season. Some of the players are older, but they have played well. If they aren’t playing well or training well, they will not get a new contract.”
Guardiola wants to keep his senior pros hungry. Even if City do not intend to give all of them a new contract, he wants them to believe they are playing for one anyway. City do not have to keep any of them. They will not be held to ransom and certainly not by players the wrong side of 30.
“They have to play every single game for themselves, their families and the team,” added Guardiola. “But we will decide at the end of the season how the team adapts. I speak to them about how they have to keep going until the end of the season to get a new contract, they have to continue to want to play.
“It depends on them. If they are angry and upset about their contract situation, they are not going to play, other guys will play.”
It is a ploy that has worked particularly well with Touré. Frozen out at the start of the season and eventually forced to apologise for accusations made about Guardiola by his agent, the midfielder’s City career appeared to be over in the autumn, but he has returned to the side in the winter and is doing everything he can to earn a new deal.
Given he is one of the top earners, on more than £300,000 a week, he may have to take a pay cut, but Guardiola’s eyes sparkle when he is asked about a player he sold to City when he was manager of Barcelona.
“I can definitely see Yaya Touré in my Champions League squad, he deserves it,” Guardiola explained. “For the first part of the season, it was difficult for him for many different reasons, but he deserves to be in the Champions League. But I’m not going to talk about if he gets a new contract, that will be decided at the end of the season.
“He has not surprised me. He is an elite player. He was always going to react. I knew what his personality was.”