John Stones had the Manchester City armband on at Wembley on Saturday. Maybe, though, it was City’s previous trip to the national stadium that illustrated that his decade at the Etihad Stadium was ending. Pep Guardiola was already without the ineligible Marc Guehi and the injured Josko Gvardiol for the Carabao Cup final. Then Ruben Dias was ruled out with a hamstring problem.
And minus three centre-backs, Stones’ status as the sixth-choice was confirmed when Nathan Ake instead partnered Abdukodir Khusanov. It amounted to a difference to a final three years earlier. Then Stones completed the most dribbles in a Champions League showpiece since Lionel Messi, running past an opponent from Inter Milan six times. Devastatingly good in 2023, Stones is departing in 2026, leaving when his contract expires this summer.
The probability is that Guardiola gave up not on Stones’ talent but on his body. A feature of recent years has been City’s decision – and probably Guardiola’s – not to offer new deals to such extraordinary players as Kevin De Bruyne and Sergio Aguero. It can be an unsentimental choice, but then Stones’ fitness has been an issue for much of his decade at the Etihad.
Now Stones has only started four league games this season, none since October, and City have lost three of those. He has made just three appearances in 2026, all in the FA Cup. The January signing of his England sidekick Guehi, another centre-back who is comfortable on the ball, was a sign City are moving on from Stones.
No centre-back has played more for Guardiola than his second signing for City, the £47.5m buy from Everton; and yet Stones could have made so many more appearances. Since his arrival, he has started just 148 of 375 Premier League games. Bernardo Silva joined a year after him but has played 161 more times for City in all competitions.
Stones was not a constant, but some of the emblematic elements of Guardiola’s City revolved around him. In December 2016, in his awkward debut year, as Jamie Vardy consigned City to a 4-2 defeat at Leicester and Stones struggled to stop him, Guardiola came out with his infamous assertion that “I am not a coach for the tackles”.
Stones felt a definitive Guardiola player; and yet Nicolas Otamendi was the constant in the middle of the defence for the centurions of 2017-18 and Vincent Kompany displaced Stones as Aymeric Laporte’s partner in the run-in during the treble season of 2018-19. It was, though, Stones, who arguably made the decisive contribution in the highest-calibre title race of all, his clearance when the ball was 11mm from crossing the line the eventual difference between City and Liverpool. They ended with 98 and 97 points.
Stones floundered in 2019-20; with Laporte injured Kompany gone and no replacement signed, he was nevertheless an unused substitute in the Champions League exit to Lyon, even though Guardiola started with three centre-backs. It was one of his worst team selections.
Yet he responded and 2020-21 was arguably Stones’ second-best campaign for City; one of many when his pass completion percentage was in the mid-nineties. It also underlined a theme: while injuries interrupted his City career, England were fortunate he was fit for major tournaments and excelled in four in a row, in 2018, 2021, 2022 and 2024.
But Stones’ signature season with City was 2022-23. It was then that “Johnny, Johnny Stones” became the anthem for their supporters, then that Guardiola’s love of technicians and willingness to reinvent footballers meant Stones became part of the pivotal switch that enabled them to finally conquer Europe.
He had been slightly jokingly nicknamed ‘the Barnsley Beckenbauer’ earlier in his career. Guardiola added substance to it, getting Stones to carry the ball out of defence, stroll into midfield and allow City to outnumber opponents. That the hybrid role, part defender, part midfielder, has not really been successfully imitated since then is perhaps an indication of how difficult it is to perfect and how idiosyncratic Stones’ skillset is.
There was a further demonstration the following season. Stones moved into midfield in the second half of a 3-3 draw against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu. He was outstanding, arguably the best player on the pitch, even when out of position.
It is the Stones City will remember; but also the Stones they were increasingly unable to call upon. He has only started 22 league games in three seasons; those injuries were a reason why City darted into the transfer market last January to sign Khusanov and Vitor Reis. He is only 31 but the increasing impression is that Thomas Tuchel needs him more than Guardiola does.
For City, with Silva – the captain who named his dog after Stones – also going, it is another break with the past. Come the start of next season, only four who started the 2023 Champions League final might be left at the Etihad and Ake is unlikely to be starting, even if Dias, Rodri and Erling Haaland are. But that seismic achievement might not have been possible without Stones, the defender gliding around the midfield, dribbling past some of the world’s best.
