Raheem Sterling completes ruthless Pep Guardiola XI that sends warning to Man City players

One of Pep Guardiola's first major moves as Manchester City manager was to replace club legend Joe Hart, in a ruthless act that showed who was boss.

Since that summer of 2016, Guardiola has overseen more exits of popular figures, for various reasons. Some have left because Guardiola didn't want them, some had got too old, and others wanted to leave so were allowed to depart as soon as an acceptable offer came in.

The common factor between 15 of City's most high-profile departures under Guardiola, though, is that the club is always put above sentiment, and if there is a risk to the harmony of the squad that risk is quickly averted. Now, Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus have become the latest victims of that approach.

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After Hart was forced out in 2016, eventually leaving permanently two years later, City can put together a very strong 'starting XI' of players departed under Guardiola who were allowed to leave.

In defence, Danilo was deemed surplus to requirements as City sold him to Juventus and signed Joao Cancelo from the Italian giants in the same window. Aleksandar Kolarov left for Roma in 2017 and continued his career in 2017 as Benjamin Mendy was signed to renew the left-back area, while Nicolas Otamendi was sold to Benfica to offset some of the cost of signing Ruben Dias from the same side.

When Vincent Kompany left in 2019, it was a personal choice, but he briefly continued his playing career at Anderlecht and his playing time under Guardiola was getting shorter due to injuries and he made just 26 appearances in his final season.

In midfield, Fernandinho could be classed in a similar category to Kompany, but the Brazilian has made it