Given his injury problems, Stones should choose between City and England. But he won't do it. He will be desperate to play for England even if it means he's out injured for months at the club that pays his wages.
5 | John Stones - 2025/26
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Cheadle_hulmeBlue
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How is that fair? I’d imagine every player in the city squad would pick their national side and wouldn’t turn down a world cup
The other players are available, Stones misses half the games...
He may want to stay, I'm sure he wants, but I'm not sure Pep and the club are happy to have an injury prone player who puts England over City...
Cheadle_hulmeBlue
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I’d argue all of our players probably put their national sides over city. Pep isn’t going to force stones into choosing a side.
Pep and the club would be delighted to have a top quality player in the side/squad. Those 20 games he does play might make a huge difference.
Georgian Maestro
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If he can stay fit he is the best footballing centre half in world football. It's a big if though.
Gvaridol and Dias will most likely be our main CB pairing? Stones can fill in brilliantly and I think he’s better than both in his day and in his prime but I fear because of his injuries those days are gone.
It's time for him to go.
Stones wants consistent football if he's going to make the World Cup. We can't give that to him with the amount of CBs we have.
City want reliable defenders if we're going to correct the awful defence of last season. Stones can't give us that any more as he's been consistently injured for 3 years.
I'm sure the guy with a year left on £250k who has huge injury question marks and is considered one of the best defenders to ever play for the club would wish to stay. But we aren't running a charity here and it makes sense to move him on.
Stones wants consistent football if he's going to make the World Cup. We can't give that to him with the amount of CBs we have.
City want reliable defenders if we're going to correct the awful defence of last season. Stones can't give us that any more as he's been consistently injured for 3 years.
I'm sure the guy with a year left on £250k who has huge injury question marks and is considered one of the best defenders to ever play for the club would wish to stay. But we aren't running a charity here and it makes sense to move him on.
Disagree. I’d rather give him one more season, see how he does fitness wise and see if he can fight for his place. If it doesn’t workout then yes he’s an expensive bench player for the season but he’s earned it.
Eccles Blue
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the plasterer
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I'd get rid of Akanji before Stones, just a shame about his injuries, absolute Rolls Royce of a footballer when fit, when he's fit and playing at his peak, he's just as good if not better than van dijk in my humble opinion
Not surprised he wants to stay, he’s on a huge wage at a great club and any move he makes is going to be a huge step down both financially and in quality.
City’s cb situation is ridiculous. We have 7, for 2 spots (as we’re finally signing fullbacks) stones is the most injury prone and the least reliable and he causes issues for the other guys. Has to go, even if it’s kicking and screaming.
City’s cb situation is ridiculous. We have 7, for 2 spots (as we’re finally signing fullbacks) stones is the most injury prone and the least reliable and he causes issues for the other guys. Has to go, even if it’s kicking and screaming.
I'd go along with that if we'd won trophies last season. I don't think we can afford to be generous. We know who are future is and it isn't John Stones. There's no actual reason to keep him outside of sentiment and when you're trying to rebuild into the best team in the world then sentiment is the enemy. Sentiment cost us the whole of last season as Pep wanted to stay loyal to his guys.
A decent read by the Daily Fail standards.
John Stones isn’t retiring. He has changed his training sessions. He can’t wait to play again next season.
www.dailymail.co.uk
John Stones isn’t retiring. He has changed his training sessions. He can’t wait to play again next season.
John Stones reveals he contemplated RETIREMENT amid injury nightmare
JACK GAUGHAN IN ATLANTA: Stones missed a staggering 33 matches for Manchester City last season with four separate injuries - and hasn't featured since February.
TonyColemansbagofapples
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Unfortunately time has moved on. Johnny has been immense when fit but now the time has come to leave. Gvardiol, Dias, Khusanov and Reis are my choices for next season. Maybe keep one of Ake or Akanji as extra insurance but don’t freeze out Stephen Mfuni or hold back Bah.
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We'd all love John to come back storming next year and be that world class player for us. But the odds are that it won't happen, as painful as that is.A decent read by the Daily Fail standards.
John Stones isn’t retiring. He has changed his training sessions. He can’t wait to play again next season.
John Stones reveals he contemplated RETIREMENT amid injury nightmare
JACK GAUGHAN IN ATLANTA: Stones missed a staggering 33 matches for Manchester City last season with four separate injuries - and hasn't featured since February.
If Stones would sign a pay as you play deal then everyone would be happy. But instead he's on around £13m a year and we have two solid CBs and at least two young CBs who are gagging to play. And that doesn't include the youth players or other squad players.
We can't afford to be nice to him. Like Grealish, it's best for everybody involved if he just moves on.
I'm With Stupid
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It might make sense, but it's unlikely to happen because of the points you make. Given his wages and injury record, he's only leaving on loan with us paying a huge chunk. I also don't really see the benefit of trying to force out a player who's homegrown and only has a year on his contract. It's not as if he's freeing up a slot, and there's still a chance that he has a more injury-free season and can leave with his head held high at the end of his contract.
blueparrot
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If we needed room in the homegrown list I could see the sense in trying to persuade him to leave. Looks like we only really need one space at most and Grealish looks most likely to make way for that. Better spending the effort making room in the non homegrown list persuading Kovacic and Akanji to join Gundogan in looking elsewhere.
Anyone think he retires when his contract is up? Now I've just seen the article linked a few posts up.
I can imagine if Stones doesn't get any minutes at this tournament then he won't play again until the Carabao Cup and only if we draw a team outside the PL.
I can imagine if Stones doesn't get any minutes at this tournament then he won't play again until the Carabao Cup and only if we draw a team outside the PL.
Keep and let him go on a free at the end of the season. Or the very least until January. Even if he did leave in this transfer window there is no guarantee he can string games together at his new club either and again he is still valuable cover which we still need for the season.
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Gaz (FMwkdsoul)
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Still need space on the bench for him as well, currently got Ake, Akanji, Khusanov, Reis sitting on it, from CB