Bernardo Silva makes vow to Man City team-mates after 'biggest honour of career'

Bernardo Silva is determined to leave a legacy for Manchester City's next generation. City captain Silva has been a huge part of the club’s most successful era as Pep Guardiola's men have won every trophy, rewritten the history books and set new records.

After finishing last season empty-handed, they are determined to prove they are well and truly back by winning the Club World Cup. But the far bigger target is to create a pathway for the stars of tomorrow in the way the likes of Vincent Kompany, Yaya Toure and Sergio Aguero did for him.

It is beginning to feel like a new City team, Pep’s 3.0 and a new generation ready for success with Silva insisting that being given the captain’s armband is not just an honour but there is a responsibility among the established stars to help guide the younger players.

Silva, 30, said: “Well, it's part of life. We've had a team that passed when I'm going to talk about players that were so important for this club and left. Like Vincent, like David Silva, Fernandinho, Kun Agüero, Yaya Touré.

“The club always finds new solutions, a new generation of players that has to keep putting this club in the right path up at the top. And yeah, it's nice that we have new blood in the team. These guys have a lot of energy, have a lot of quality.

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“Being made captain is probably one of the biggest honours of my career. We went through a lot of fantastic moments and some disappointments as well. All that experience, I will try to pass it to the younger guys. But the leadership in a team, it's not about one guy.

“I'm counting on Ruben Dias, on Rodri, on Erling Haaland, on all the guys to help me. Because I will need that help to help the team achieve a lot of things and hopefully win titles.

“It’s up to us, the older ones to give them the right path to achieve the good things. And then for them to take our place and perform at the club.

“And hopefully in a few years, it's their turn to show the young guys what to do. But it's definitely really nice to have them with us. They're great guys and they're working a lot, which is very important.”

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City have blended in new boys Rayan Aït-Nouri and Tijjani Reijnders in their Club World Cup campaign and they have made a seamless transition.

Last season City lost the FA Cup final, lost their grasp on the Premier League title after winning it four times in a row and also crashing out early from the Champions League which they won just a couple of years ago.

It begged the obvious question as to whether City boss Guardiola had lost his dominance and if City were no longer the team to beat in English football after Liverpool ’s title success.

And yet they have looked very impressive in the Club World Cup and are now eyeing a last 16 tie in Orlando on Monday with a route to the final stages of the tournament.

They put five past Juventus in their final Group match. It would also be one hell of a mission statement if City can win the trophy - and it would also go a long way to showing they are back.

Silva added: “We've always been potential winners in all competitions that we play. Obviously it's just one game, but we're happy that the performance was the way it was. It shows that we're improving, we're coming back to the levels and to the standards that we got people used to at this club.

“That's good. That's a good sign for next season. Not only for this competition, but we want to build to the whole season, to the whole year.

“Because what happened last year was quite disappointing for all of us. We want to change, we want to be better. This was a great performance and it shows that we can do it again.”

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