Joel Penny

How do you score against them?

I think there might be, and particularly if, as you say, Maresca was planning to try and not change too much, a little bit of evolution rather than revolution.

Because, as you say, Bernardo Silva was such a key component.

Not only did Guardiola pick him more than he picked any other Man City player, he picked him more than he's picked anyone else in his entire career.

He loves him.

So the idea, he was so pivotal, even at times when people thought, oh, well, surely he's not the best person for that job.

He was always in there because of, like you say, that versatility, the intelligence, the understanding of what any game needs at any moment.

And I think there are some other City players within there who may well have some of that.

But I'm fascinated by the Rodri question because...

He is in the last year of his contract.

They haven't really gone into much detail with him signing a new contract.

And it's the two kind of ideas of him being the Ballon d'Or winner, who was so important to them, and him also being a 29-year-old who's just come off the back of an ACL and had a few other injuries since.

Yeah, moved him to centre-half to try and prolong his career a bit.

But he didn't have that kind of an injury.

I think that's the thing.

And so you can easily see a world where the demands or what Rodri and his agent want and what City believe, we've already seen what they did with Kev De Bruyne, they aren't going to do that again.

So you can see the world where if Rodri does stay this season...

His ability to be that general, that leader, is compromised by the fact that he might be at odds with the club.

But then, of course, they might just buy in Elliot Anderson, Sal Rodri, and then just move on from there, from here.

We'll have to wait and see on that one.