Guardiola confirms he wants to keep Man City star at the club this summer | OneFootball

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola insists that John Stones will be “massively important” for his side next season.

The defender missed much of last season, only managing to play 20 games in all competitions due to injury.

Although some reports suggested that the defender could be leaving the club this summer, Stones was adamant that he would be staying at City: “The rumours I hear are ridiculous. This is my home. I’d like to stay,” he said.

And Guardiola further showed his support for the Englishman, saying that he needs to have Stones in his squad next season.

“In the years of the treble and quadruple, John Stones was massively important for us,” he said after City’s 3-0 win over Palermo.

“He is a top class player but last season he played less than 30 per cent of the games for us. He was injured a lot of time.

“What we want is for him to be fit. He didn’t play much in the Club World Cup. He played the first 45 minutes here and it’s step by step because we need him.

“We have good central defenders but we need him.”

Guardiola’s side ended their last campaign 13 points behind the champions Liverpool having won four titles in a row previously.

Even though they crashed out in the Club World Cup round of 16 to Saudi Arabian side Al Hilal, the City manager is confident that his side will be better than last season.

“We have been happy since the United States of America and the Club World Cup,” he said. “Our vibes there were really good, there was a little bit of sadness in the way we left.

“But we were so good there, the players found it really good there. We wanted to stay for more weeks, not just to win the Club World Cup, congratulations Chelsea, but to get one more week together to build what we want to do this season.

“Now I think the Premier League will be long but with the spirit that we have I think and I hope that we will be more consistent than last season.

Summer signing Tijjani Reijnders scored twice in City’s win over Palermo and Guardiola is backing the midfielder to have a big impact this season.

He said: “He is a special player arriving into the box, he loves that. I think the people from Italy knows him perfectly for his spirit in Milan.

“Apart from his two goals he had a good performance like the rest of his teammates.

The Spaniard also spoke about which position the midfielder will take up for his side: “He can play as a holding midfielder, but who knows.

“He loves to arrive in the box to help our strikers, Erling [Haaland], [Omar Marmoush] or the people who play there to make that movement so I am really pleased with him.”