Manchester City are used to seeing players leave the club during the transfer windows.
Specifically, City have seen multiple players wave goodbye to the Etihad Stadium in recent years either on permanent deals for transfer fees, temporary loan deals or as free agents.
After seeing Julian Alvarez, Joao Cancelo, Sergio Gomez and Liam Delap leave City on permanent deals during the previous summer transfer window, Pep Guardiola’s side have had a mixed first few months of the 2024/25 season.
Specifically, after making it to late October without being beaten, the Blues have now lost their five previous matches across all competitions.
With a Champions League match against Feyenoord at the Etihad Stadium awaiting the Citizens, some supporters have taken to X to share their thoughts on one specific figure in the City squad after a fresh update emerged regarding them.
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Man City fans react to John Stones update
Following a report from The Mirror revealing that John Stones missed Monday’s training session ahead of City’s Champions League match against Feyenoord, this group of City supporters seem to be of the opinion that the defender’s time at the club should be brought to an end in the near future.
One user wrote: “Love John Stones but he needs to go now. He’s our most unreliable player. His whole career at City has been about injuries.”
Another followed that up with a similar message saying: “I love & adore him. But his injuries are becoming too often now. So, next summer it’s time to say goodbye.”
This user also picked up on Stones’ injury and fitness issues, saying this on the matter: “Love John, great player for sure but with all his injuries and age, also seemingly always playing for the national team when he is not fully fit, I think at contract extension talks, it’s sadly maybe time to say goodbye.”
The Englishman’s reliability also came into question, with this X user sharing this verdict: “It’s time to say goodbye… yes he has been good but no need to have a defender that can’t be fit for 2 consecutive games.”
City must make a decision about Stones
City signed Stones from Everton back in the 2016 summer transfer window in a deal worth a reported fee of £50m.
Since then, the Englishman has gone on to make 268 appearances in total, winning multiple trophies along the way.
As things stand, the 30-year-old’s contract at City is set to expire in the summer of 2026.
Last season saw the defender appear in 28 matches across all competitions, 22 of which he started. This is due to Stones having to deal with various injury and fitness issues.
This time around, the England international has started seven of the 11 matches he’s featured in this season – once again having to deal with injury problems.
Back in October, Guardiola said Stones is “important” for City, which makes his injury issues and the unreliability they give him particularly frustrating.
Moving forward, if the defender’s injury issues continue and he keeps missing games, a decision may have to be made regarding whether the club thinks it would be best for them to move him on and replace him with someone less injury-prone.
