Pep Guardiola reportedly told three players back in May that he knows who will be the manager to replace him at Manchester City.

This weekend will see the Citizens take on Brighton & Hove Albion at the Etihad Stadium for their latest Premier League outing following the latest international break.

Now though, some interesting behind-the-scenes information has come to light regarding what happened in the previous meeting between the two sides.

The 52-year-old has been very complimentary of the Italian previously, having described him as one of the most influential managers of the past 20 years, which makes it easy to see why he has the apparent belief that the Brighton boss is the ideal candidate to manage City further down the line.

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Since joining the south coast club, De Zerbi has overlooked 50 matches in all competitions, winning 24 of them, some of which were eye-catching results such as beating Manchester United 3-1 at Old Trafford earlier in this current Premier League campaign and beating Arsenal 3-0 at the Emirates towards the end of last season.

Moving forward, while the City boss will undoubtedly be hoping to pick up all three points in tomorrow's match, it'll be interesting to see if De Zerbi is able to strengthen his credentials in terms of being the next manager after Guardiola.