Bernardo Silva aims dig at Manchester City teammates after first trophy-less season since 2017 confirmed | OneFootball

Manchester City players have been hit with a dig from Bernardo Silva during his latest round of media activities in which he claims to have found out “who the real ones are”.

The entire Etihad Stadium squad has significantly underperformed this season although have been struck by a whole host of injury and fitness problems to restrict Pep Guardiola’s line-up options at crucial points of the campaign.

Oscar Bobb’s horror leg break prior to the start of the season was added to by a serious knee injury sustained by Rodri in late September, with both men ruled out for the large majority of the campaign, while reoccurring injuries added further issue, particularly in defence.

Concerns over the defence’s ability to stay fit for the second-half of the season forced City into the market, at a time when the club also lost captain Kyle Walker on loan for the remainder of the year, with the Englishman prioritising his own personal ventures over the club.

Speaking to the media after Manchester City’s FA Cup Final defeat at the hands of Crystal Palace, Bernardo Silva told reporters of his belief that ‘something definitely needs to change’ despite his own opinions on the season as a whole.

“You learn a lot of new things, in the bad moments you learn new things. Who you can go to war with, first of all,” the Portuguese international insisted as he built up to what is being perceived as a dig towards some of his teammates.

“Because it’s in the bad moments that you see who the real ones are. And a lot of things that were good for us – not to take things for granted, for our fans, for the club,” he continued. “Don’t lower our standards. It’s a tough season for us.

“It’s a really, really bad season for us. Something has to change next year. It’s for the big bosses to decide. I have my opinion but definitely something needs to change when you don’t perform at this level.”

There remains work to be done in the final week of the Premier League season too, with a minimum of one point required from their final match for a top-five finish and a place in next season’s UEFA Champions League.

“Qualifying for the Champions League or not can make a huge difference for the club financially and for us. I know we’ve got people used to winning every year. And people demand this team to win every year,” Bernardo Silva said.

“Football is a tough sport and it’s not easy to beat these teams, especially in the Premier League. Like Palace, this team has a lot of individual quality. If you go and look around teams in the Premier League, all of them have two, three players that are unbelievable players.

“Our standard and our level needs to be very, very high to be champions again. And that’s the level that we want to reach again.”

Manchester City will travel to Fulham on the final day of the Premier League season knowing that avoiding defeat will be enough to guarantee them a place in next season’s UEFA Champions League competition.