It s useless to win the European championship, Guardiola refuses to retain the captain of England s U21

Guardiola refused to retain the England U21 captain, McGrady missed Manchester City's new season plan

Although James McGrady led the England U21 team as the captain to defend the title in the 2025 European U21 Youth Championship, the Manchester City youth training star still failed to win the trust of coach Guardiola and was confirmed to be excluded from the team's plan in the new season.

This summer, McGrady chose to represent England U21 in the European Youth Championship in Slovakia rather than play in the Club World Cup with Manchester City. He performed well in the competition and led the team to defeat the German U21 as the captain, showing outstanding leadership and technical ability.

However, this decision does not seem to be recognized by Guardiola. According to The Sun, Guardiola was dissatisfied with McGrady's failure to prioritize the club's itinerary and decided not to include it in the team building blueprint for next season.

Currently, Manchester City's midfield lineup is extremely large and competitive. In addition to the main midfielder Rodri returning from injury, the club also spent 125 million pounds to introduce Reindes and Cherki this summer. In this case, the space left for McGdy is almost zero.

In fact, Manchester City had already begun considering selling McGrady as early as the end of last season. Now as he misses the first team plan for the new season, the club is ready to listen to quotes from all parties.

Although McGrady only started nine times in various competitions this season for Manchester City, his recent performance, especially his outstanding performance in the U21 European Championship, has undoubtedly enhanced its market value. It is estimated that Manchester City hopes to receive at least £25 million (about €30 million) in transfer fees.

Several clubs have expressed interest in the young midfielder, including many Premier League teams such as Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, and many Bundesliga powerhouses - Dortmund, Leverkusen, RB Leipzig, Stuttgart and Frankfurt.

Among them, Dortmund's interests are the clearest. It is reported that they have agreed to sell Jamie Gittens to Chelsea and will use the funds to chase McGetty. For Dortmund, McGrady can not only enhance the depth of the midfield, but also bring more creativity and vitality.

Previously, McGrady was loaned to Sheffield United twice to accumulate game experience, but she never really impressed Guardiola and failed to gain a foothold in Manchester City.