Bernardo Silva sends message to Manchester City board after Kevin De Bruyne contract snub | OneFootball

Manchester City captain Bernardo Silva has spoken at length about taking over the baton from the likes of Kevin De Bruyne and Kyle Walker next season.

Silva has been appointed club captain by Pep Guardiola ahead of the 2025-26 campaign as Manchester City plan for life beyond Kevin De Bruyne – who has joined Napoli – and former club captain Kyle Walker, who is expected to complete a permanent departure from the Etihad Stadium in the coming months.

De Bruyne was hopeful of extending a decorated 10-year spell in Manchester as he sought a new deal – but the Manchester City board and Guardiola decided against offering the 34-year-old a renewed contract, which saw the Belgian leave and move to Italy.

Walker sought exile in Italy himself in January after losing his spot in Guardiola’s starting XI owing to a horrid run of performances in the fall of 2024, which saw the likes of Matheus Nunes and Rico Lewis take over at right-back as the 35-year-old England international joined AC Milan on loan for the second half of the season.

City endured a frustrating, trophyless 2024-25 season but with Hugo Viana appointed as director of football, the Blues have made an eye-catching start to the transfer window with the additions of Rayan Ait-Nouri, Marcus Bettinelli, Tijjani Reijnders and Rayan Cherki.

De Bruyne and Scott Carson have been the first ones to be shown the door at the end of their respective contracts, with Walker set to follow. Jack Grealish and Kalvin Phillips are also expected to find new clubs – either on a permanent basis or on loan – before the Premier League campaign begins in August.

In an emotional farewell to his dear friend with whom Silva has won everything in a Manchester City shirt, the 30-year-old Portuguese said that “a little bit of the soul of this team is going” – when asked to reflect upon De Bruyne’s exit in an interview with ESPN a few months ago.

However, Silva is ready to take on the armband and lead from the front to get Manchester City back where they belong in terms of challenging for all major trophies after a sobering 2024-25 season – which Guardiola labelled as the most challenging year of his managerial career.

“It’s part of life. I’m going to talk about players that were so important for this club and left. Like Vincent (Kompany), like David Silva, Fernandinho, Kun Aguero, Yaya Toure,” said Silva on De Bruyne and Walker leaving the club, as quoted by France 24.

“The club always finds new solutions, a new generation of players that has to keep putting this club in the right path up at the top.

“It’s probably one of the biggest honours of my career (to be appointed Manchester City captain). I’m going to start my ninth season at the club.

“We went through a lot of fantastic moments and some disappointments as well. All that experience, I will try to pass it to the younger guys.

“It’s about each one of us being our own leader and helping the guy next to us in the dressing room.

“The same way that we helped the other guys, I’m counting on Ruben (Dias), on Rodri, on Erling (Haaland), on all the guys to help me.

“Because I will need that help to help the team achieve a lot of things and hopefully win titles.”

New signings Ait-Nouri, Reijnders and Cherki have already given an early peak through the curtain into what the Manchester City fanbase can expect from them in the seasons to come, with Silva very impressed with what he’s witnessed of the fresh arrivals so far.

The former AS Monaco midfielder added: “It’s nice that we have new blood in the team. These guys have a lot of energy, have a lot of quality.

“It’s up to us, the older ones to give them the right path to achieve the good things. And then for them to take our place.”

Manchester City seem to have their mojo back and are through to the FIFA Club World Cup Round of 16 stage – where they will face Al-Hilal at the weekend – after a clean sweep of wins in the group-stage with an aggregate score of 13-2 over the course of wins over Wydad AC, Al Ain and Juventus.

“We’ve always been potential winners in all competitions that we play. Obviously it’s just one game, but we’re happy that the performance was the way it was,” Silva added.

“It shows that we’re improving, we’re coming back to the levels and to the standards that we got people used to at this club. That’s good. That’s a good sign for next season. Not only for this competition, but we want to build to the whole season, to the whole year.”

City finished trophyless for just the second time under Guardiola last term, finishing third in the Premier League, crashing out of the UEFA Champions League at the Round of 16 stage and losing the FA Cup final to Crystal Palace.

Silva said: “What happened last year was quite disappointing for all of us. We want to change, we want to be better. Today was a great performance and it shows that we can do it again.