‘Saudi league completely changed the market’

SEOUL — Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said that the Saudi Pro League had “completely changed the market” as he expects more and more high-profile players to move there.

City winger Riyad Mahrez became just the latest big name to move to Saudi football, following in the footsteps of Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and numerous others from Europe’s top leagues.

Algerian international Mahrez, who scored 78 goals and made 59 assists for City in a trophy-laden spell at the club, joined Al-Ahli for a fee understood to be worth up to £30 million.

Asked if he had wanted Mahrez to remain at City, Guardiola told reporters: “Definitely. I enjoyed as a manager to be with him. I had a special relationship with him…

Bayern Munich’s Sadio Mane looked poised to join the exodus.

“The Saudi league completely changed the market,” Guardiola said in Seoul on the eve of City’s friendly with Atletico Madrid.

“A year ago when Cristiano Ronaldo was the first player, no one could imagine how many top, top quality, extraordinary players were going to play in the Saudi league.

“In the future, it will happen more and more,” the Spanish boss added according to AFP.

“Right now, the Saudi league, I don’t know how long they will sustain it, but the feeling is that they will stay. The players want to take this experience to play in that league and they are able to do it.”

Guardiola said that he had a “special relationship” with Mahrez, even though the attacker fell from favour towards the end of his time at the English and European champions.

“He’s one of the players I’ve seen in my career I enjoyed the most.

“(He was) an important figure for the success we had during the five or six years together.”

“The market is open until the end of August,’ Guardiola said. “I think a few things, or many things, are going to happen. We will see if we need wingers or inside players, we will see what happens with loan players, which players stay or not.”

That so many have indicated they could leave has been a surprise, yet seemingly every year lies talk of up to half-a-dozen moving on and it never materialises to that extent.

Joao Cancelo’s future feels neither here nor there given he wasn’t around for the last six months of their history-making campaign.

City could not formalise interest in James Maddison without knowing about departures — namely Silva — and had already wrapped up Mateo Kovacic from Chelsea for £25m.

If nothing else happens then City would find themselves in a decent position to go again. Present that option to Guardiola now and he’d probably take it.

Guardiola acknowledged Saudi Arabia’s ambition to create a strong league, stating, “At present, the Saudi league seems poised to endure. Players are eager to gain experience playing in this league, and they have the capability to do so.”

Following their pre-season tour, Manchester City’s first match of the 2023-24 domestic season will be the Community Shield game against Arsenal on August 6.