Manchester City chief executive Ferran Soriano has closed the door on Bernardo Silva leaving the club before the transfer deadline amid ongoing links with Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain.
Barcelona have been particularly chasing Silva this summer and City were forced to deny reports from the Catalan press in July that a transfer agreement had been reached.
Silva has remained a star on the pitch for City in recent years, playing a key role in multiple Premier League title triumphs. Despite being happy playing for the club, he first grew unsettled off the pitch as far back as 2020 during the UK’s first Covid-19 lockdown and began angling for a move.
The issue of his future in Manchester has been a repeated theme in subsequent summers, but City have stood firm this year, with no desire to let him leave.
Now, City official Soriano, who was previously a vice-president at Barcelona, has said as much publicly during an appearance on Què T’hi Jugues on SER Catalunya radio, ruling anything out for now on the basis that there wouldn’t be sufficient time to find a replacement.
“It’s too late to talk about entrances and exits,” Soriano explained.
Silva himself spoke about his future earlier this month and it is believed that he would ultimately like to join Barcelona at some point.
“I’ve been open with [Man City] and they know what I want. If I stay, I’m very happy, and will always respect this club and give my best. If not, it’s football and we’ll just see what happens,” he said.
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There also remains the not-insignificant matter of Barcelona’s finances. The Catalan giants remain in an extremely difficult position and have had to trigger several ‘economic levers’ just to enable them to register new signings Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha, Franck Kessie and Andreas Christensen, as well as new contracts for Ousmane Dembele and Sergi Roberto.
But new arrival Jules Kounde is still waiting to be registered in accordance with La Liga salary cap regulations, which is dependent on others leaving the club first.
