Man City playmaker may follow Kevin De Bruyne out of exit door | OneFootball

Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva is edging closer to a potential summer exit from the club, reports in his native Portugal state, as the required rebuild at the Etihad Stadium accelerates.

Off the back of a historic fourth successive Premier League title last season, City are now at risk of their worst finish under the management of Pep Guardiola. There are also no guarantees they will even qualify for next season's Champions League.

The squad has reached its natural expiration - as Silva himself said - and the reset began in January when more than £170m was spent on Omar Marmoush, Nico Gonzalez, Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis. And while Ilkay Gundogan is staying for another year, Kevin De Bruyne is off in the summer and Kyle Walker has already left. Now, Silva could also be heading for the door and a farewell.

In Portugal, A Bola writes that a proposed return to former club Benfica is progressing. There is "optimism" from the Lisbon giants that an agreement can be reached and the "foundations have been laid" in early talks with both Silva and Manchester City.

Benfica are seeking to invest and recruiting Silva, 30, would be viewed as symbolic of that commitment, as much as it is a boost in a sporting sense. It could also be an opportunity for the club to replace 37-year-old Angel Di Maria, although it is possible the veteran winger stays anyway.

Silva hails from Lisbon and started his career with Benfica from the age of eight. He progressed to the first-team as a teenager but made just three appearances before a career-defining switch to Monaco. It was there that he was part of an exciting team that beat Paris Saint-Germain to the Ligue 1 title in 2016/17 and reached the Champions League semi-finals.

There was interest from Manchester United, but Silva joined City in £43.5m deal that summer and has since played almost 400 games for the club across close to eight seasons. Yet his future in Manchester has been uncertain on and off since 2020, when he first grew unsettled during Covid-19 lockdown, with interest from Barcelona and PSG over the last few years.