Guardiola keen for Savinho stay amid further Man City departures

LONDON, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola admitted that more players could leave his club before the end of the month, but says he hopes Brazilian winger Savinho isn't one of them.

The summer has already seen Jack Grealish, Kevin de Bruyne and Kyle Walker leave the club, with winger James McAtee also linked with a departure, but speaking to the press on Friday lunchtime, Guardiola admitted they would not be the last.

"We have a few [players who could leave] but I think it's the same for many clubs. We have a lot of players, there will be two out of the squad tomorrow and it'll be four or five when we get our injured players back. It's not the ideal situation," he said.

"I don't know exactly how many will leave. There are still three weeks to go," Guardiola added, before admitting he didn't like leaving players out of his squad.

However, he insisted that former Girona winger Savinho wasn't someone he wanted to lose, despite rumors of a big-money offer from Tottenham Hotspur.

"Tottenham, or any other club [who] wants a player, should call the club. My only concern today is that Savinho will be with us for the rest of the season, and hopefully for many years because he's 21 years old," said Guardiola, who added that he expected the forward to continue improving.

"With the potential that he has, he's played a lot of minutes, he has to improve his final decisions but he's an extraordinary player," added the Man City coach, who pointed out that if he didn't have faith in the Brazilian, "he wouldn't play more than 3,000 minutes [last season]." ■