There may be’something going on’ behind the scenes as regards Pep Guardiola’s relationship with one of his best legs and the club’s longest-serving player, Kevin De Bruyne.
Gary Lineker suspects the duo might have had a fallout given the Belgian’s lack of gametime, despite regaining fitness a few weeks back.
Debruyne was once again left out of Guardiola’s starting lineup for Sunday’s 2-0 loss against Liverpool, and this has raised questions from the pundit.
The 33-year-old is out of contract with the club by the end of the season, and he recently revealed that talks he has halted talks of an extension with the club. Although he insisted that he is comfortable with the situation.
Meanwhile, Guardiola admitted uncertainty about Kevin De Bruyne’s future amid rumours of a big-money move to Saudi Arabia. Speculation about a rift grew after the midfielder, who has been an important player in City’s success under Guardiola, was limited to just a 12-minute cameo off the bench against Premier League leaders Liverpool.
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Lineker’s observation on Guardiola and De Bruyne’s relationship
“De Bruyne came on again with not long to go when the game was pretty much done,” Lineker probed, speaking on the latest episode of The Rest Is Football, via the Mirror.
He continued, ”Yeah, he nearly got a goal because of [Virgil] van Dijk’s error, but is there something going on there, do you think? Because he’s been coming on for five or 10 minutes, what, for about a month now?
“You would imagine he’s getting fitter, even though I saw both of them – Pep Guardiola and De Bruyne – make interesting statements in the week, where it seems like all’s not well between those two?”
Lineker’s statement implies that both men are at loggerheads, hence the reason for De Bruyne’s limited game time.
However, this observation remains speculative for now, as there has not been any concrete information about a fallout between the midfielder and his manager, who had an actual disagreement during this same fixture in the previous season.
