England open their Euro 2024 campaign against Serbia on Sunday, with Kieran Trippier set to start at left-back – and the Newcastle veteran has admitted that he would have never made the grade had he stayed at Manchester City.
The reigning Premier League champions have John Stones, vice captain Kyle Walker, and Player of the Season Phil Foden in Gareth Southgate’s squad.
Even Cole Palmer, their academy graduate now at Chelsea, is in with a chance of featuring heavily this tournament.
Trippier is another to have come through the club’s academy, but similar to the Blues attacker, the full-back was sold before he could make a name for himself.
At Manchester City, Micah Richards was ahead of him at right-back, and he knew he would struggle to make the grade.
When Trippier was asked if he would have landed a spot in the starting XI if Pep Guardiola was manager at the time when he was there, he told Overlap via SkyBet: "Not really, if I am going to be honest with you. I look at my career and I wouldn’t change anything. I think at the time I was there you had [Pablo] Zabaleta who was one of the best right backs for many years. Micah [Richards] was there as well, and I went through the transition where they had just been taken over.
He continued: "They started buying loads of players and I needed to get out and play. I was at Barnsley [on loan] and loved the experience of that. I think there is no shame in dropping down a league. It was tough for me at Manchester City at the time because I was never going to play. That is when I signed for Burnley.
“I go back to my first game at Barnsley, I was playing next to Darren Moore, and he was brilliant with me. It was a good experience over a year and a half at Barnsley and I just wanted more of it and of course I was at City for many years in the youth system. The players that decided to stay there and get more money, now are not really playing, so just getting game time was important no matter where it was.
"Back then, when you’re young, you don’t play for the money, it is more about the pure enjoyment of playing football and that was what my main focus was. I knew a few lads at Burnley when I was there, and everything was perfect.”
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