Pep Guardiola may have unearthed two Man City midfield replacements without spending a penny

A week on from the Champions League final, and Manchester City are already looking to the future.

The celebrations have died down (for now) and the players are off on international duty. Pep Guardiola is getting some well-deserved rounds of golf in.

Back home, and it seems that the transfer rumour mill is firmly up and running. In the past week, five senior City players have been linked with an exit, while three big names have been mentioned as being of interest to the Blues - Declan Rice, Josko Gvardiol and Mateo Kovacic.

Of those linked with leaving, Ilkay Gundogan is yet to sign a new contract, Kyle Walker is said to be talking to Bayern Munich, and Bernardo Silva could look for the exit door for the third summer running.

ALSO READ: Walker transfer could change Guardiola's plan for Rico Lewis

There were many intriguing aspects of City's Champions League final win, not least the fact that Guardiola started four centre-backs, and only one winger in Jack Grealish. Riyad Mahrez and Phil Foden were on the bench, as was Kyle Walker and Aymeric Laporte. If you told a City fan that those players would start on the bench for a Champions League final, with Nathan Ake, Manu Akanji and Jack Grealish starting, you'd have been laughed out of the room.

But that is the nature of Guardiola's ever-evolving squad, and the exit of Joao Cancelo was the beginning of the move away from full-backs. Cancelo had started the inverted role, Rico Lewis took it on, and Stones transformed the role to another level. Suddenly, Stones was effectively playing as a number eight in the Champions League final and was running the show.

It would be a shame if Stones didn't continue that journey after playing so well in a dual defender-midfielder role,