Guardiola: Grealish could still return to Manchester City

Guardiola leaves open the possibility for Jack Grealish to return to Manchester City.

The England player has made a huge impact since joining Merseyside club Everton on a season-long loan in August.

The 30-year-old midfield maestro has fallen down the pecking order at the Etihad Stadium.

Pep Guardiola won't need to find a way to limit Grealish in the Premier League on Saturday because he won't be able to play against his parent club, but his form has not gone unnoticed.

City manager Guardiola said: "I think he has one more year of contract with us."

"The important thing is that he is back. He has a huge impact in Everton games. After all this, maybe Manchester City wants to sign him back, but I don't know. "

A lot of things can still happen. We'll see.

"The big thing is he's playing again, a lot of minutes. That's the standard. I'm really happy, really, that he's back and trying his best. "

Jake · Grealish has performed extremely well since joining Everton on loan from Manchester City

Another player Guardiola is pleased with that he does not need to stop is Erling Haaland, who he feels is in the best form of his career.

The efficient forward has scored an impressive 21 goals in 12 appearances for Manchester City or Norway this season.

His exploits include five goals against Moldova in September and a hat-trick against Israel last weekend, which put Norway on track to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1998.

In nine games for Manchester City, his only game without scoring came against Tottenham Hotspur in September.

His 12 goals for Manchester City this season take the 25-year-old's total for the club to 136 since moving to Manchester City from Borussia Dortmund in 2022.

Guardiola joked that if he were the opposing coach, he would need to arrange "four central defenders" to defend him.

He added: "I was happy to play against him at Dortmund and hope I won't meet him again for the rest of my life."

"He is a top player. In world football, there are four, five, six, 10 players who can change the game. I think he is one of them. We have him, hopefully for many years, and we are very happy about it."

When asked if he thought this was Haaland's best performance to date, the Spaniard said: "I think so."

"He feels very good and the level of performance, not only in terms of goals but in many aspects, is outstanding."

Guardiola said that he does not need to micromanage Haaland too much at the moment and will only step in when Haaland encounters a bad state.

"What I'm saying is, [he] is going to give up because it's not going to last, [but] I'm going to be there and we're going to be there," he said. "We've always got to support each other in the bad moments. Now, he doesn't need praise or anything special."