{"id":289437,"date":"2023-09-04T09:34:32","date_gmt":"2023-09-04T09:34:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tellmysport.com\/?p=289437"},"modified":"2023-09-04T09:34:32","modified_gmt":"2023-09-04T09:34:32","slug":"kyle-walker-reveals-how-pep-guardiola-convinced-him-to-stay-at-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tellmysport.com\/soccer\/kyle-walker-reveals-how-pep-guardiola-convinced-him-to-stay-at-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyle Walker reveals how Pep Guardiola convinced him to stay at City"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Kyle Walker reveals how dinner with Pep Guardiola convinced him to turn down Bayern Munich to stay at Manchester City&#8230;as England international admits he came &#8216;very close&#8217; to joining Harry Kane at the Bundesliga giants<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Kyle Walker is poised to sign a new three-year deal with Manchester City<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>He agreed terms with Bayern Munich this summer but changed his mind<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Walker has been handed the captaincy following Kevin De Bruyne&#8217;s injury\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Kyle Walker has revealed a sushi dinner with Pep Guardiola convinced him to stay at Manchester City and reject an offer from Bayern Munich.<\/p>\n<p>The 33-year-old is poised to sign a new three-year deal with the Premier League champions, but admitted he came very close so swap England for Germany over the summer.<\/p>\n<p>Bayern agreed personal terms with the England international over a two-year deal, b<span>ut after meeting Guardiola for dinner, Walker changed his mind and opted to remain in Manchester instead.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I have a really good relationship with Pep and he was kind enough to invite me out for food,&#8217; he told The Times.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;He paid the bill, for once!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/04\/08\/75031829-0-image-a-16_1693814064592.jpg\" height=\"427\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Kyle Walker is poised to sign a new three-year deal with Manchester City<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/04\/08\/75031849-0-image-a-17_1693814066768.jpg\" height=\"383\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The right-back revealed how a dinner with Pep Guardiola convinced him to stay at the Etihad<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It was good to know his plans for the future and for this season and what he wants to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Being one of the senior members \u2013 and standing in the captaincy \u2013 it was important to get Pep\u2019s views and put my view of what the lads feel for the season coming forward.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Harry Kane swapped the Premier League for the Bundesliga this summer and Walker admitted he would have relished the opportunity to play for Bayern.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It was close but in football things can happen,&#8217; he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Decisions can be made. Things can turn. It wasn\u2019t meant to be.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Would I have enjoyed the experience? Of course I would have done.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, he conceded that leaving City would have proved difficult after six seasons at the Etihad.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I love the place, I\u2019ve experienced things I only dreamed of here \u2013 especially the last season \u2013 so why would you want to leave a club like this?,&#8217; he said.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/04\/08\/75031855-0-image-a-18_1693814108382.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Walker had agreed personal terms on a two-year deal with Bayern Munich where he could have been reunited with England teammate Harry Kane (above)<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It was about who gave me the most years [on contract] [&#8230;] It was just what gave me the years in my contract to play football at the highest level.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>While City are traditionally reluctant to offer long-term deals to veteran players, they appear to have made an exception for Walker, who will be 36 by the time his new contract runs out.<\/p>\n<p>While the former Tottenham defender lost his starting spot last season and played only eight minutes in the Champions League final win against Inter Milan, allowing him to leave would have left City short of options at right-back<\/p>\n<p>Instead, Walker has played every minute of City&#8217;s four Premier League games so far, as well as playing 120 minutes in both the Community Shield defeat against Arsenal and the UEFA Super Cup final win over Sevilla.<\/p>\n<p>He has also been handed the captaincy on an interim basis following Kevin De Bruyne&#8217;s injury on the opening weekend of the season.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/04\/08\/75031837-0-image-a-21_1693814173509.jpg\" height=\"413\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Walker (right) won the treble with City last season and is targeting more silverware<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/04\/08\/75031899-0-image-a-22_1693814215319.jpg\" height=\"416\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The 33-year-old has been handed the captaincy in Kevin De Bruyne&#8217;s absence\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Walker is determined to make the position his own on a permanent basis.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I am relishing the opportunity.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I am very grateful and hopefully I am stand-in captain until Kevin comes back or I get the official [position], that is up to the lads and staff.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It is an honour of privilege, of course I want it. If you can\u2019t pass on your knowledge and life experiences on or off the field I shouldn\u2019t be playing at a great club like this.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12477995\/Kyle-Walker-Pep-Guardiola-Manchester-City-contract-Bayern-Munich.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kyle Walker reveals how dinner with Pep Guardiola convinced him to turn down Bayern Munich to stay at Manchester City&#8230;as England international admits he came &#8216;very close&#8217; to joining Harry Kane at the Bundesliga giants Kyle Walker is poised to sign a new three-year deal with Manchester City He agreed terms with Bayern Munich this&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289436,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Kyle Walker reveals how Pep Guardiola convinced him to stay at City - Tell My Sport<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tellmysport.com\/soccer\/kyle-walker-reveals-how-pep-guardiola-convinced-him-to-stay-at-city\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kyle Walker reveals how Pep Guardiola convinced him to stay at City - Tell My Sport\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kyle Walker reveals how dinner with Pep Guardiola convinced him to turn down Bayern Munich to stay at Manchester City&#8230;as England international admits he came &#8216;very close&#8217; 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