John Stones told what he must to do to get new Man City contract

• Sport
• Football
• Manchester City Transfer News

Manchester City are mulling over a new contract for John Stones and Pep Guardiola has given his view on the form of the England international.

Pep Guardiola has challenged John Stones to prove his fitness to earn a new contract at Manchester City, with the centre-back now in his final year at the Etihad.

Stones has been blighted by injuries in the past couple of seasons and recently said he had considered retiring last term as the frustration of his battle to get fit took its toll.

But his patience has been rewarded this season, and the 31-year-old has been in fine form for club and country. He played all but 10 minutes of England's October double header against Wales and Latvia and has missed just one Premier League game with a minor injury.

Stones started City's first three Premier League games of the season but has since played second fiddle to Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol. Guardiola remains a huge fan of the defender and although he insists contract talks are a matter for director of football Hugo Viana, the City boss told Stones that fitness was going to be the major issue when it comes to a new deal.

"The club will decide what is best for John," said Guardiola. "We will see how he performs.

"When John is fit, he is part of the group, the starting XI and the year of the treble [he] was unbelievable but since then he has not had the consistency in [number of] games. He’s been injured many times so that is why we have to wait and see."

Stones suffered five separate injury issues last season and has missed more than 50 games in the last two seasons, but Guardiola hopes that issues are a thing of the past and has no doubts about his quality when he is involved.

"I hope so. I’m happy that he’s back there and the confidence from Thomas [Tuchel] to him," he said.

"There’s no doubts about his potential and his quality. I’m happy he played with his country."

---

Here at the Manchester Evening News, we’re dedicated to bringing you the best Manchester City coverage and analysis.

Make sure you don’t miss out on the latest City news by joining our free WhatsApp group. You can get all the breaking news and best analysis sent straight to your phone by clicking here to subscribe.

You can also subscribe to our free newsletter service. Click here to be sent all the day’s biggest stories.

And finally, if you’d rather listen to our expert analysis then make sure to check out our Talking City podcast. Our shows are available on all podcast platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and you can also watch along on YouTube.