Riyad Mahrez is set to leave Manchester City for Saudi Arabia, and it sounds as though this one has gotten quite ugly behind the scenes.
Indeed, while Mahrez has more than earned club legend status, his final months at the Etihad didn’t exactly go to plan.
The Algerian played less and less, and he was left out of both the FA Cup and Champions League finals.
It’s been reported that Mahrez was very much hurt by those snubs, and according to Graeme Bailey, speaking on the Talking Transfers Podcast, Mahrez no longer trusts Pep Guardiola after he left him out of those key games.
Mahrez doesn’t trust Pep
Bailey shared what he’s hearing about Mahrez.
“Mahrez leaving, it has shocked everyone at the club, they knew how hurt he was at missing out on both of those finals, I think what that did as well, it broke the trust he had in Pep Guardiola. We know there were talks in the last week, but no matter what Pep was telling him, could he believe what he was telling him? This was the same bloke who left him out of the FA Cup and Champions League finals. He’s not spitting his dummy out, he’s just accepted he’s not going to get the gametime he wants,” Bailey said.
Shame
It’s really sad that it’s had to end this way with Mahrez.
The £60m man has been a massive player for City in recent years, and while he has fallen out of favour slightly lately, he’s still a top class player.
To be honest, we can understand why Mahrez would want to go after being left out of the two biggest games of the season, but it’s hard to understand why he’d want to go to Saudi Arabia.
If his issue was that he wasn’t able to play in the biggest games for City why would he now go to a league where he will never have the chance to play in a game of this stature ever again?
Of course, money is a factor and the Saudi League is improving everyday, but this is a move that doesn’t make loads of sense to us.
