Bernardo Silva hints at Man City dressing room discord after revealing "real ones" comment

Bernardo Silva hints at Man City dressing room discord after revealing "real ones" comment

Manchester City have had a disappointing season and will go without a major trophy for the first time in eight years after they lost the FA Cup final to Crystal Palace.

Bernardo Silva will offer his thoughts of what's gone wrong at City this season to Pep Guardiola and club bosses

Bernardo Silva said he learnt which of his Manchester City teammates he can "go to war with" after their disappointing season culminated with a shock defeat in the FA Cup final.

The Blues were stunned by Crystal Palace at Wembley and will end a season without a major trophy for the first time since Pep Guardiola's first year at the Etihad in 2016/17.

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Their attempt to win a fifth successive Premier League title came to a premature end after a disastrous run at the end of 2024, and they were knocked out of the Champions League by Real Madrid in the play-off round.

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Oliver Glasner's side stripped away the opportunity to salvage a trophy from the campaign at Wembley. They now need to regroup to secure a Champions League spot, with games against Bournemouth and Fulham to come in the Premier League.

The end of the campaign will bring about further changes within Pep Guardiola's squad, and Bernardo will offer his feedback to the club's decision-makers. However, he hinted at discord within the dressing room after revealing he had learnt plenty about his teammates during their most difficult season together.

"You learn a lot of new things [after a difficult season]," he said. "In the bad moments, you learn new things. Who you can go to war with, first of all. Because it's in the bad moments that you see who the real ones are.

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"And a lot of things that were good for us to not take things for granted, for our fans, for the club. Don't lower our standards.

“Because I know we've got people used to winning every year. People demand this team to win every year. Football is a tough sport and it's not easy to beat these teams, especially in the Premier League. Like [Palace], this team has a lot of individual quality.

“If you go and look around teams in the Premier League, all of them have two, three players that are unbelievable players. Our standard needs to be, our level needs to be very, very high to be champions again. And that's the level that we want to reach again.”

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A key summer will focus on how City return to these levels. Kevin De Bruyne is leaving the Etihad after a decade of service, and there is an expectation that Ederson will also go.

Bernardo has also been linked with an exit, but he is keen to offer his appraisal of why things have gone wrong this term after such a sustained run of success.

“I have my opinion, I'm not going to give it to you," the 30-year-old said. "It's for the big bosses to decide.

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"As I said, I have my opinion, but definitely something needs to change when you don't perform at this level."

Asked if it was to do with the personnel, the mindset or the mentality of the team, Bernardo added: “I'd say a bit of everything because I don't want to say what's in my opinion. But yeah, the season was not good for many reasons.

“It's a tough season for us. It's a really, really bad season for us. Something has to change next year."

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City started well at Wembley, but they were sucker-punched on the break when Eberechi Eze scored and couldn't find a response. There was controversy when Dean Henderson avoided a red card after handling outside his area.

The goalkeeper pushed the ball away under pressure from Erling Haaland. Although VAR reviewed the incident, he escaped dismissal and then saved Omar Marmoush's penalty to preserve Palace's lead.

Bernardo was reluctant to use that as an excuse but was stunned that the former Manchester United goalkeeper wasn't shown a red card.

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"We're a bit too used to these kind of situations. Not just with our team, I'm not saying it happens because of us.," he said.

"But even with VAR, the mistakes still happen. Today I actually watched it now, and I think it's a big mistake because playing 60 minutes with one more player can make a difference.

“At the end we can do much better than what we did. But it's a clear mistake again and it has an impact on the game.

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"I don't like to make excuses at the end of games that we lose. I want to give credit to this Palace team because they were a very good side. They deserved it, they ran like crazy.

“We could see that it was a really important game for the fans, for the players. So I don't want to mix things up. But definitely when you have the technology and you still make these mistakes, not only in this game but in a lot of games that we see throughout the season. It just cannot happen.

“You play in the best league in the world, teams work a lot to arrive to these stages and to perform. And if we lose, it should be, we or any team, it should be because we don't perform well. It shouldn't be when you have technology, there's just no excuse for the mistakes that happen."

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