Man City may have to get tough with three stars over transfer deadlines

Manchester City's golden rule with wantaway stars is well known but sometimes the specifics get lost.

Anyone that wishes to leave can do ... but only if they bring an acceptable offer to the table. City are not a charity willing to let players walk away for peanuts and they also factor time into any equation; Paris Saint-Germain's bid for Bernardo Silva last summer was rejected fundamentally because it came too close to the closing of the transfer deadline.

Time is of course relative, and City are relatively late in getting up and started again for the new season with their players still enjoying their holidays after other clubs have reported back to start preparations for the new campaign. Part of that is a deliberate strategy from the club, but it also reflects the fact that their season ended later than anyone else and two weeks after all but one Premier League club.

There are no panic stations in the transfer window either. Despite some fans being impatient at the lack of resolution over signing RB Leipzig defender Josko Gvardiol, there is ample time for that deal to be done.

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Slightly more pressing is the decision over departures. Bernardo Silva, Kyle Walker, and Riyad Mahrez are three of the players mulling their options over next season and City may have to enforce a deadline if their policy is to wait for those calls to be made before acting further in the transfer market.

City do not necessarily need to replace Ilkay Gundogan given Mateo Kovacic has arrived and Joao Cancelo or Aymeric Laporte could also leave without further strengthening (assuming Gvardiol comes anyway) yet those three would require action. Given the knock-on