John Stones is reportedly frustrated with his time at Manchester City and ready to move on to another club. The 23-year-old centre-back was brought in by Pep Guardiola in his first year as a mega-money signing but the player has so far failed to deliver.
Stones impressed heavily during his time at Everton where he became a star. His good form earned him interest from Chelsea and Manchester City with Stones preferring to choose Guardiola’s project over Antonio Conte’s.
However, the game under Pep Guardiola is always different. The Spanish tactician is a fan of the technical game and drills his teams in a particular way. He prefers to have centre backs who are comfortable on the ball and can build the game from the back. Hence it seemed that Stones and Guardiola were a match made in heaven.
However, although Stones worked well on the technical aspect with the ball, his defending without the ball has not been up to the mark. He still gets caught out of position, makes silly tackles and lunges in without thinking. This means that Guardiola is still waiting for his Englishman to deliver.
This has seen Guardiola shift his focus to other players like Nicolas Otamendi and Vincent Kompany with new signing Aymeric Laporte being his third choice leaving Stones out at fourth. While Kompany is and always has been a class act, Otamendi and Laporte are far from being there. Otamendi has his time running out and Guardiola may soon replace him.
This would see Stones’ chance of getting back become even tougher and hence the frustration in his career. He has reportedly been linked with a move to Liverpool and Arsenal and the player is ready to make the switch to further his career rather than waste it on the City bench.
At Arsenal, the Gunners have defenders like Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker who are reaching the end of their careers soon. While Shkrodan Mustafi is still on the younger side, he is yet to reach his best form this season. Rob Holding and Calum Chambers are far too young and inconsistent to make it to the Arsenal line-up on a regular basis.
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This would mean that getting Stones would actually help them stabilize their backline and possibly improve it, in the long run, should Stones live up to his potential. The player is a class act and playing at a top club with regular football might just see him get back to his best.
