'At Man City if you don't win, you don't belong': BERNARDO SILVA on his 'intense' emotions around leaving, Pep Guardiola, winding up Liverpool, who'd win out of City and United's Treble teams... and a veiled dig at Arsenal's 'rugby' set-pieces

Once the news was out about Kevin De Bruyne’s impending departure, Pep Guardiola picked up the phone to somebody he trusts above all others. There were still six weeks left of the season but Manchester City’s manager wanted to plan ahead.

Bernardo Silva’s mobile buzzed, the reliable technician with more than a bit of bark. The pair of them speak a lot on the phone, Silva the player who has racked up more appearances than anybody under Guardiola across the Catalan’s vaunted 18-year managerial career.

De Bruyne had not been offered fresh terms by City and was bringing an emotional end to a decade in England, leaving as the club’s greatest modern-day superstar. Guardiola had succession planning on his mind and over the phone told Silva he was the next captain, blowing a hole in his own rules of a collegiate voting process.

Silva said no. He’d already decided that the 2025-26 campaign was to be his last at the Etihad Stadium, a verdict reached in the immediate aftermath of City lifting a record fourth consecutive title in 2024. Now, with Guardiola on the other end of the line, just 12 months remained.

‘Pep was a bit upset with me initially,’ Silva, 31, tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘We didn't agree completely because I said, "Look, you know my decision. I'm going to leave in one year. Maybe it's better for the club if you choose the guy that's going to be a captain a bit more long-term".

‘We talked again. He decided to go through with it, and I was really honoured. I was just thinking that maybe for the club it was better if it was a guy that was going to stay for at least three, four, five more years.’

Somebody like his best mate Ruben Dias perhaps, the Portugal central defender who is odds-on to take over in the summer. Because this is it: the final week of Bernardo Silva in the Premier League. The final weeks of City’s cult hero in the building. The man who opponents love to hate and a man who would put City above all else.

The conversation with Guardiola signifies that attitude. Not merely giving his manager a yes. Instead, thinking of the lasting ramifications of this decision, the impact of leadership upheaval further down the line.

In reality, Guardiola could not have picked a man more perfect for this job at the time. When standards needed driving up after plenty of the squad had lost their way last season – even if City did eventually finish third in the league, behind Liverpool and Arsenal. Silva has discussed resetting the culture, taken to mean around the training ground.

‘When you're at a club like Man City, if you don't win, you don't belong,' he says. 'You need to perform, and you need to show up at training every day and do your best. You might have a good day, a worse day, but at least perform and try to do your best.

‘And in terms of how we took care of our bodies, the hunger… I think we lacked that last season, and this season we're happy that it’s back. Then you can win or lose, but at least this season we were there. Last season, for at least six months, we weren't very present.’

There is no room for ambiguity there. No lines to read between. Silva talks about how Guardiola ‘doesn’t accept losing, doesn’t accept underperforming’. It is this attitude that sets the Portuguese apart from others, that competitive spirit in full evidence before Wednesday night’s 3-0 win against Crystal Palace. Not during but before.

Supporters had clubbed together to raise funds for banners marking the incredible and soon-to-end City careers of Silva and John Stones – two close friends, with Silva naming his first dog John (the second is called Charles, after the King). Silva’s flag is of him holding a polystyrene cup of tea instead of clapping while City gave Liverpool a guard of honour in 2020, a picture that went down in folklore around these parts and marked the midfielder as Public Enemy No 1 on Merseyside.

He might have scored those two goals against Real Madrid on the way to the Treble or bossed games at Old Trafford, nestled inside the club’s top 10 appearance makers, but the cup is the undeniable cult image of his nine years here. Savinho had to nudge him to notice the banner as they lined up for Palace, otherwise Silva would have missed the gesture.

‘Maybe I shouldn’t have done what I did,’ he grins. ‘I’m a bad loser. But it's a fun moment. I think some people give way too much importance to that! When I win a title, I want to celebrate with my people. I don't care if the guys from the other side, or the other fans, they clap at me.’

All of these facets to his infectious character and the win-at-all-costs nature of his performances paint a picture of why Pep Lijnders recently admitted to not liking Silva all that much when he was Jurgen Klopp’s No 2. Lijnders, having swapped over to be Guardiola's assistant, now loves Silva, the arc of their relationship neatly encapsulating the Portuguese.

Whoever fills these shoes in the coming months has one of the most unenviable jobs in football. Not least because, unbelievably, Silva has been available for all but seven league matches across a glittering career at City. Guardiola’s City are not Guardiola’s City without Silva.

It could end with an FA Cup against Chelsea on Saturday and even a seventh league crown, were things to dramatically swing in City’s favour. Irrespective, his legacy is not defined by the next eight days.

There is a clarity to Silva, having been free in his mind and settled on what comes next for two years prior to waving goodbye. There is more calm around these final weeks than previous departing legends.

‘I saw how difficult it was for Gundo (Ilkay Gundogan) and for Kevin when they left,’ he says. ‘Not knowing what was going to happen (with contracts). I’ll leave this club as a massive supporter. The way that it (the emotion) hit Kevin last year felt quite intense.

'So probably it's going to be the same. Intense in knowing that maybe it’s going to be the last game I ever play in our stadium. Eventually, if I play against City in European competitions, I can come back.’

Silva will not be heading back to boyhood club Benfica this summer. Too early in a career he believes has years left ‘at the top level’. Besides, they’re not in terrific shape, and their manager is about to leave for Real Madrid. He claims not to know the next destination yet but the way he speaks suggests a Champions League club is nailed on. Juventus and Barcelona have had serious looks into the finances.

He has yearned for a better climate, although learned to love Manchester quite quickly. He rifles off favourite Northern Quarter and city centre haunts.

‘I used to go for brunch twice a week to Evelyn's, to Ezra & Gil,' he says. 'My favourite pub is by far Albert’s Schloss. I’d wear a cap! I think some of the guys still go sometimes. The city has changed a lot. If you look at restaurants, The Ivy wasn't here. Fenix wasn't here. Sexy Fish wasn't here. Manchester developed a lot, and it's a really nice city. It's very international.’

When he first arrived in England, a £43million signing from the Monaco team that had just knocked City out of the Champions League on its way to the semi-finals, Silva was single, in the same apartment he now shares with wife Ines and their two-year-old daughter, Carlota. In 2018, his mother Maria visited for Christmas and insisted that he put some decorations up. A Christmas tree was sourced.

‘I was a boy alone, I didn't care,’ he recalls. ‘And she said, "Bernardo, you need a Christmas tree, you need something". And I said, "Mum, please don't do anything because if you do it, I'm not going to undo it". And yeah, she did it and I didn't bother to undo it. And it stayed there for three years.

‘It was a nice piece of furniture for me all year round! Eventually I started my relationship with my wife. As soon as she saw that, she said, "No, no chance". That was it.’

The grin is out again. He can be a simple soul, Silva. There were fish and chips at the club’s training ground for the players – he claims it is similar to a dish in Portugal - ahead of a lavish leaving bash for him and Stones, hosted at Louis in town.

Ines was hands on with the logistics of that night and meeting her clearly played a significant role in Silva staying at the club for so long. With Paris Saint-Germain and Barca interested around the Covid lockdown, Silva – who Guardiola insisted should have been PFA Player of the Year in 2019, when Virgil van Dijk took the top prize – was ready to leave given his personal circumstances. That he didn’t is a blessing. Both for him and the club.

He allows the idea of Guardiola’s City being labelled the country’s greatest ever team to percolate.

‘There is a strong case for that,’ he says. ‘If you look at the records, 100 points, the Treble. (But) I don’t remember when Liverpool dominated England. I do remember Man United. Those two teams are up there.’

The Treble winners of ’99 and ‘23 in a one-off fixture would be quite tasty.

‘We would beat them easy,' he says. 'No, I’m joking! I look at the way that Roy Keane and Gary Neville, these kind of guys, do interviews and you see that they have that same mentality as City.’

Silva shares that no-nonsense manner for which Keane and Neville are renowned. That and some deep thinking. Blend those together and you arrive at his views on how the Premier League has changed and been allowed to change by officiating over the years.

Unburdened with only days left on these shores, he offers a sharp perspective on the state of the game.

‘The referees here in England, they allow you to play and that's really good,' he says. 'But it changed a lot. I really like the physicality of the game, and I really like that you don't reward cheating, you don't reward diving. You let the game flow, that is the league’s best quality – the best in the world.’

That is open play. Now for balance, Silva turns to set-pieces. Arsenal are not named but the inference is obvious.

‘I'm not sure when set-pieces changed,’ he says. ‘Maybe two years ago. And I really don't like it because the amount of time wasted in throw-ins, in corners. For a long time they have rewarded bad defending. And what I mean by bad defending is you grab someone, like I did against Everton (when Silva grappled with Toffees midfielder Merlin Rohl).

‘You grab someone with two arms, and you tackle him on the ground like rugby, and that's (now) OK. That (seems) fine for them. We had a conversation with the referees. We said, "Look, if you're going to start allowing this, we're going to do the same". Because it's ridiculous.

‘City were probably one of the last ones doing it because we saw everyone doing it. It’s a shame because it’s not the game. The fans are not here to watch this. It’s just quite boring.

'They started whistling these things in the last few games. Whistling maybe a bit too late, in the last few matches.’

Or too early. If there had been no whistle at the London Stadium last week when David Raya spilled a corner under duress, the chances of Silva’s final day in Manchester ending with fireworks and a trophy lift would feel far more likely.