{"id":692601,"date":"2026-01-13T06:02:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T06:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/692601\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T06:02:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T06:02:13","slug":"pep-guardiola-unsure-if-james-trafford-will-stay-at-manchester-city-next-season-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/692601\/","title":{"rendered":"Pep Guardiola unsure if James Trafford will stay at Manchester City next season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pep Guardiola is uncertain if James Trafford will still be a Manchester City player next season.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old academy graduate looked set to become City\u2019s first-choice goalkeeper when he rejoined the club for \u00a327million from Burnley last summer and immediately replaced Ederson.<\/p>\n

He started the first three Premier League games of the season but then lost his place after City opportunistically swooped for Gianluigi Donnarumma, who had fallen out with Paris St Germain, on transfer deadline day.<\/p>\n

\"ManchesterTrafford soon lost his place to Gianluigi Donnarumma (Martin Rickett\/PA)<\/p>\n

The European Under-21 Championship winner has since had to settle for four appearances in domestic cup competitions and one Champions League outing against Bayer Leverkusen when Guardiola made 10 changes.<\/p>\n

Although he is set for another run-out in the first leg of City\u2019s Carabao Cup semi-final against Newcastle at St James\u2019 Park on Tuesday, it has so far not been a fairy tale return to City.<\/p>\n

Guardiola says the player has handled the situation well but accepts he may want to rethink his future plans.<\/p>\n

The City manager said: \u201cHe\u2019s reacted really well. There\u2019s been no complaints. James is a top keeper, there\u2019s no doubt about that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t feel bad but I understand the situation. The situation of the keeper is completely special, right? Because you play one or the other one.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like some players you can play in different positions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I say is we count on him, we want him but what\u2019s going to happen at the end of the season we will see.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ManchesterCity boss Guardiola has hailed Trafford\u2019s attitude (Martin Rickett\/PA)<\/p>\n

City have ruled out any possibility that Trafford \u2013 who turned down Newcastle last summer \u2013 might leave the club on loan during the current transfer window.<\/p>\n

Guardiola said: \u201cI would like him to stay for many, many, many years here because he has attributes to play in a club like us, but the situation of the keepers is special, it\u2019s different, and we\u2019ll see what happens at the end of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Remarkably, the prolific Erling Haaland was not among the goalscorers as City thrashed League One side Exeter 10-1 in the FA Cup third round on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The Norwegian has scored 26 goals for City this season but only one \u2013 a penalty \u2013 in his last five appearances.<\/p>\n

Guardiola could have rested him at the weekend but still feels his first-half appearance was the best preparation for Newcastle.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI preferred him to play 45 minutes \u2013 it didn\u2019t really matter about the result. He trained the day after. Erling is a guy who needs rhythm and that\u2019s why.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s had a lot of chances and that\u2019s what we have to do \u2013 try to create chances for him and then in the right moment always he will be there.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pep Guardiola is uncertain if James Trafford will still be a Manchester City player next season. The 23-year-old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,2465,16,16849,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-692601","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-manchester","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-uk-sports","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115886276287218697","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}