Manchester City are losing ‘a little bit of soul’ by letting Kevin De Bruyne leave, says Bernardo Silva | OneFootball

Bernardo Silva believes Manchester City are losing ‘a little bit of soul’ from within their team by allowing Kevin De Bruyne to leave this summer, speaking during a new interview.

The veteran Belgian midfielder is calling time on his 10-year stay at the Etihad Stadium having won everything available to himself and his teammates, with club officials opting not to renew his contractual terms beyond the end of the ongoing season.

De Bruyn himself has since spoken out about the discussions which ultimately led to the decision, insisting upon his belief that the move was more ‘business’ as opposed to for sporting reasons, while Pep Guardiola has also rejected opportunity to speak further on the matter.

As such, the final few weeks of the season will see the legendary playmaker feature for the final few times in sky blue and aim to get Manchester City back into the UEFA Champions League for next season, and possibly add silverware via the FA Cup.

Speaking during a new interview with ITV ahead of this weekend’s FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest, Bernardo Silva has spoken at length about the mood within the Manchester City camp surrounding Kevin De Bruyne’s now-confirmed pending exit.

“We knew about the possibility, about the decision. I personally knew like two days before it, so it wasn’t that long,” the veteran midfielder admitted. “It was tough for us because for me personally it was eight years together.”

Bernardo Silva continued, “For a lot of us, it was a long time with him. So a little bit of the soul of this team is going. It’s sad. It hard for us, we wanted him to stay with us, we wanted him to keep going.

“Kevin will definitely go – no disrespect to the others but for me – he’s the best player in the history of the club. The only thing we can say to him is thank you, and wish him all the best. We’re sad he’s going. We didn’t want him to go.”

Offering insight into what it has been like to star in the Manchester City side alongside a player of Kevin De Bruyne’s quality, the Portuguese midfielder continued, “I think it’s final third. He sees things that other players don’t see but especially tries things that other players wouldn’t dare to try.

“And you need those kind of special players that do things that no one expects in your team if you want to go for the big trophies, and he was one of the main reasons why we achieved so much in the last eight seasons mainly.”

Given the pending exit of De Bruyne, Manchester City’s players will also have to select a new club captain for the third time in a matter of months following Kyle Walker’s exit in January on a loan move to AC Milan.

The England international defender is not expected to play any part in Manchester City’s future plans from this summer, even if the Italian side choose not to make their temporary agreement with the right-back into a permanent deal.

Among the names that would likely be at the forefront of a captaincy vote include Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva, Ruben Dias, and Rodri, while Erling Haaland has emerged as a leading future captain in recent months.