Pep Guardiola is convinced that Kevin De Bruyne won’t leave Manchester City this summer, despite being tempted by the riches of Saudi Arabia.

De Bruyne has entered the final year of his current contract with City and has been courted by Saudi Pro League team Al-Ittihad. Reports in Italy over the weekend suggested that De Bruyne had agreed terms with Al-Ittihad, but it has since become clear that they were wide of the mark.

Nevertheless, with De Bruyne now 33 years old and approaching the end of his career and his City contract, there are legitimate questions about his future. The Belgium international has played for City since 2015, winning six Premier League titles, five Carabao Cups and two FA Cups and Guardiola believes there will be more to come.

Speaking to reporters ahead of City’s opening pre-season game against Celtic in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Guardiola simply stated: “Kevin isn’t leaving.” City goalkeeper Ederson has also been linked with a move to Saudi Arabia, but Guardiola appears unconcerned.

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“If someone leaves, we’re going to talk about that,” he added. “Of course, until the last day, we have chances [to make transfers], I don’t rule out the option to have new players but I think there is an 85/90 per cent chance we will have the same squad.

“I feel comfortable, because the quality of human beings we have in the squad is difficult to be replaced, and the quality is there. But we’ll see, I don’t know in the last moment if someone comes for some players and they leave, we’re going to decide.”

De Bruyne has clearly been exploring his options, having held talks with new MLS franchise San Diego FC, as well as preliminary discussions over a move to Saudi Arabia.

Kevin De Bruyne has spent nine years with Manchester City ( 
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He was open about his thoughts in an interview with Belgian newspaper HLN in June. “At my age you have to be open to everything,” he said. “You’re talking about incredible amounts of money in what may be the end of my career.

“Sometimes you have to think about that. If I play there [Saudi Arabia] for two years, I will be able to earn an incredible amount of money. Before that I had to play football for 15 years. I may not even reach that amount yet. Then you have to think about what that could mean next. But at the moment I haven’t had to think about that yet.”

City are interested in Crystal Palace star Eberechi Eze for the eventuality that a key player like De Bruyne does decide to leave this summer. Mirror Football understands that Palace would demand around £68million for his signature after losing Michael Olise to Bayern Munich.