Ex-Manchester United star Gerard Pique backs Manchester City new-boy John Stones to live up to his £47.5m price tag
GERARD PIQUE has backed John Stones to live up to his £47.5million price tag at Manchester City.
The England defender, 22, completed the big-money move from Everton earlier this month.
And Barcelona centre-back Pique believes Stones has a bright future under his old Nou Camp boss Pep Guardiola.
Pique, 29, said: “He’s a great player, he’s the best centre-back right now in England and I like how he plays. It’s more like my style and it’s very difficult to play like that in England because defenders usually are just for defending and not for building play with the ball.
“Pep will help him a lot. He will make him take calculated risks at the back and play the ball. But sometimes you have to be careful when you’re a defender and you need to control your risks. I think he will do great.”
Pique, a Premier League winner with Manchester United back in 2008, enjoyed Leicester City’s fairytale title triumph last term.
And, ahead of Thursday’s Champions League group stage draw, the Spain ace will be watching who Barca’s fellow Pot 1 side Foxes come up against.
Pique has won Ol’ Big Ears four times and believes competition new-boys Leicester can hold their own among Europe’s elite.
But he is not predicting another underdog upset in the Prem any time soon.
Speaking at the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour in Barcelona he said: “I don’t think it will happen again for a while. This normally happens once every 50 years.
“They were by far the best club last season and deserved it a lot. But at the same time other big clubs were not at their best, clubs like City, Arsenal and United didn’t play as well and their players were not at their best level. And Leicester took the opportunity.”
World Cup-winner Pique was 17 when he arrived at Old Trafford after starting his career in Barcelona’s youth teams.
He returned to the Nou Camp in 2008 after failing to break into centre-back pairing Rio
Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic.
But he credits his time in Manchester with shaping his career and believes former United academy player Paul Pogba will not regret returning to the fold after his £89m move from Juventus.
Pique added: “I didn’t have the opportunity to play with him at United because he was younger but he has a lot of qualities and that’s why United paid a lot of money for him. There are a lot of expectations. They are currently on a great run with Zlatan Ibrahimovic scoring many goals, so we will have to see.
“I really like the club, it’s one of the best in the world. From the outside it seems just like a big football club, but when you are on the inside it is like a family.
“I like the people of Manchester. I was lucky that in the first year I moved I had a family that took me in and looked after me. They were unbelievable for me and helped me adapt to the country.
“And of course Sir Alex Ferguson was a really important person for me and helped me a lot. When I arrived I was just a kid and he was like a second dad to me.”
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