Manchester City are willing to part ways with John Stones and six other first-team players

Pep Guardiola has opened the exit door for six first team players along with John Stones. (Image credits - FMT, License Details)

Several reports have suggested that Manchester City are willing to sever bonds with their reliable defender and England international, John Stones, and have added the 31-year-old to a "six-man departure list", which includes some of their first-team players.

As per The Athletic, the list includes Nico O’Reilly, Mateo Kovacic, Ilkay Gundogan, Claudio Echeverri, and Oscar Bobb, as most of these players either had a disappointing campaign or missed most of the matches due to injuries.

Similarly, Stones also had limited opportunities last season, as the 31-year-old made only 11 Premier League appearances for the Cityzens, being forced on the sidelines for several months due to multiple injuries, including major foot and hamstring injuries.

Stones' continuous absence led to the arrival of Abdukodir Khusanov in January, as a centre-back signing seemed imminent for Pep Guardiola; however, things haven't exactly gone as planned for Khusanov as well, as the Uzbek has struggled so far and found it difficult to fill the void in the Sky Blues' defence.

What next for Manchester City in the summer transfer window?

Manchester City have been busy in the transfer market and have recruited already some top talents, which includes players like Tijjani Reinders, Rayan Ait-Nouri, and Rayan Cherki, but they seem to have overlooked their critical centre-back problem so far, with their last season's performance indicating that they need a proper defensive pair in order to challenge for the Premier League title.

Guardiola and co. are focusing on reducing the squad size and have already initiated a "mass exodus" operation with the sale of two of their most iconic players in recent times: Kyle Walker and Kevin De Bruyne.

At this moment, City appear to be more focused on summer sales than purchases, but experts believe that their transfer activity is far from being over and predict that the 8-time English champions will make "at least one major signing" before their first pre-season game at the Stadio Renzo Barbera against Palermo on 9th August.