“He has to be ready” – Pep Guardiola gives insight into rivalry between Manchester City first-team pair | OneFootball

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has explained how James Trafford has reacted to a squad role in recent months following the arrival of Gianluigi Donnarumma.

Trafford started each of Manchester City’s opening trio of Premier League games this season, making a strong impression against Wolves and Brighton but drawing huge criticism for an error directly leading to goal in a 2-0 defeat to Tottenham in August.

The 22-year-old returned to the Etihad Stadium in July as Manchester City’s newly-appointed director of football Hugo Viana activated a buy-back clause in the England U-21 international’s contract – two years on from Trafford joining Burnley from City.

Manchester City were resigned to losing Ederson in the summer and did allow the Brazilian to seal his desired transfer to Fenerbahce on deadline day – but Trafford was caught off guard with the trick executives at the Etihad Stadium had up their sleeves as they approached the end of a crossroads window for the Blues.

Just months after leading Paris Saint-Germain to their premier UEFA Champions League title, Donnarumma fell out with the French giants and was deemed surplus to requirements by PSG boss Luis Enrique, who signed Lucas Chevalier from Lille in August to replace Donnarumma.

Manchester City took note of Donnarumma’s parting of ways with PSG and quickly emerged as frontrunners to sign the 26-year-old goalkeeper, who was on the lookout for a new club as he approached the final 12 months of his contract at the Parc des Princes.

After agreeing personal terms with the Italy international, Manchester City had everything in place to seal the arrival of Donnarumma on deadline day and put the wheels in motion to formalise their signing of the AC Milan academy graduate – just as soon as Ederson was allowed to fly to Turkey on deadline day and join Fenerbahce for £12.1 million.

Less than two months into his arrival to England and Donnarumma has received huge plaudits for his early heroics in Manchester City colours, with many in the industry hailing Viana’s shrewd capture of one of world’s greatest shotstoppers on the cheap in opportunistic and very anti-City fashion on deadline day.

Trafford has made just one start for Manchester City since Donnarumma joined – in City’s 2-0 Carabao Cup third-round win over Huddersfield last month. The Manchester City academy graduate will start in goal on Wednesday as City face Swansea in the fourth-round of the competition in Wales.

Reflecting on how Trafford has taken to being dropped to the bench following Donnarumma’s sudden arrival, Guardiola said: “We’re delighted with his behaviour and training, one of the reasons why I want to go through in this competition (the Carabao Cup).

“Always he has to be ready just in case we need him in the Premier League and Champions League. We have an incredible keeper; for England he will be, sooner or later, the top one. Gigio (Donnarumma), I’m pretty sure he’s learning from James (Trafford) and James learning from Gigio.

“The keepers are always connected, they train with Xabi (Mancisidor) and Richard (Wright), and they learn like I learn from the players, and hopefully the players can learn from the staff.”

Donnarumma has quickly established himself as a Manchester City fan favourite and it does not look like Trafford is clawing his way back into Guardiola’s starting XI anytime soon – though the Catalan did say at the start of the season that Trafford will get ample opportunities to stake his claim as the first-choice goalkeeper.