Kyle Walker has told Oleksandr Zinchenko that Manchester City will miss him ahead of the completion of the Ukrainian's move to Arsenal.
In the last few days City and Arsenal reached an agreement for the transfer of the 26-year-old left-back, and the Ukrainian star bid farewell to his teammates on Tuesday before leaving City's pre-season camp in Houston to fly to Orlando for his medical. The Gunners are expected to announce the signing this week.
The move brings an end to Zinchenko's six-year spell at City, a period in which he contributed massively to City's success but never really managed to establish himself as a regular starter in Pep Guardiola's side.
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This reflects City's willingness to let him go for the right price - he has been a great servant to the club, but ultimately he is expendable. However, when speaking to UK press on Tuesday Walker admitted that he will be missed in the City dressing room.
Walker said: "Assuming it goes well for him with his medical and personal terms, as you can see with the lads and staff he’s really popular, he’ll be a miss but life goes on, we have to deal with it.
"It's a hurdle we have to overcome. We've lost two big characters with Fernandinho and Raz [Raheem Sterling]. But me, [Ilkay] Gundogan, Ruben [Dias], Rodri, [Nathan] Ake need to step up and maintain the level when senior players leave, show the new players our philosophy, the bars we set, we have to maintain that."
On the field Zinchenko's departure leaves City a little short of defensive options, at least until a replacement is signed. However, Walker doesn't see that as a huge problem.
Walker added: "You can see over a number of years [we have] been light on defensive side. [At] full-back and centre back players can drop in - Rodri, Ake at left-back, we have to be versatile. The manager likes to put his twists on it, we have to adapt and that’s what good teams do."
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