Man City have a wildcard solution to fill a problem position - and Pep Guardiola loves him

John Stones has spent most of his life playing as a centre-back, but search for highlights of the biggest game of his career and you find videos with titles such as "John Stones midfield masterclass in Champions League final".

This was the apex of Stones' Manchester City career, and that night in Istanbul his Mona Lisa. We had become used to seeing Stones step into midfield, often from centre-back, sometimes from right-back, but this was something else. "I played as more of a No 8 today," he beamed afterwards, "which I loved."

In a City performance full of nerves, Stones rose above it all. He glided around the pitch, skipped past Inter defenders, and basically just ran the show. He was easily the best player on the pitch.

Stones was often stationed defensively as the right-sided defender in City's system that night in June 2023, but rather than stepping in alongside Rodri in midfield, he went past him, as he had explained. It was a superb performance.

But since then, things have been a little more difficult for the 31-year-old to the point that this summer, there are genuine questions about his future at the club.

Since the Champions League final, he has started only 18 of 76 Premier League games, and last year, he missed 33 matches with four separate injuries. He has become something of a forgotten man and has seen his place in Pep Guardiola's strongest team disappear.

This season, it seems fair to assume that Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol will be the first-choice centre-back partnership. Vitor Reis (19) and Abdukodir Khusanov (21) are the next generation, and Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake are still options. There are clearly too many central defenders, and during the Club World Cup, Guardiola signalled his intent to