Pep Guardiola predicts new signing Ruben Dias will be 'incredible player' for Man City for 'next five, six, seven years'

Pep Guardiola hopes Rúben Dias will be in contention to make his Manchester City debut at the weekend after starting training following his £65million move from Benfica.

The Portugal centre-back, 23, arrived at the Etihad Stadium earlier this week to bolster a defence that conceded five goals against Leicester City in their last Premier League match. 

Dias will be involved in the training sessions ahead of the trip to Leeds United on Saturday evening, when he could make the first appearance in what Guardiola expects to be a long career at City.

“We know his personality and I’m pretty sure he will be an incredible player for this club for the next five, six, seven years,” Guardiola said. “He will start on Thursday to train with us and we’ll try to get him ready as quickly as possible to play in the games.”

Guardiola now has his centre-backs for the season and look stronger this week as Aymeric Laporte returned to action in the Carabao Cup win at Burnley after isolating for coronavirus. He took a knock to his ankle which required treatment but was able to continue at Turf Moor.

Nathan Ake has arrived from Bournemouth in a £41million deal and John Stones is determined to fight for his place despite not getting regular football last season. Eric Garcia is wanted by Barcelona and could leave before the transfer deadline next week. Taylor Harwood-Bellis, 18, came off the bench against Burnley and is training with the first team.

“My compliments to the club for making this effort to get him because now our back four is a young, young group,” Guardiola said. “We’ve got John, we’ve got Ruben, Taylor, Nathan and Aymeric it’s a young team.”

Oleksandr Zinchenko is injured and the clock is ticking if he leaves. Guardiola does not believe City will see any more arrivals.

“I think It will be over. I don’t know – maybe someone will want to leave. So we will see what happens until the end,” he said.