Rio Ferdinand claims that Man City boss Pep Guardiola has lost faith in defender John Stones.
The Manchester United great was speaking ahead of City 's clash with Newcastle United when he analysed what has gone wrong for Stones.
The former Everton star signed for City back in 2016 and was expected to significantly progress at the Blues but that has never really come to fruition.
Ferdinand says that Stones did arrive at City as a bit of a project but he expected more from the defender in the last four years.
Stones started at the back for the Blues against Newcastle and ahead of the fixture, Ferdinand touched on why he believes that the 26-year-old does not have Guardiola's full backing.
“John Stones was a young English centre-half, who everyone had big hopes for. I was one of his biggest fans when he was growing up - a great ball-playing centre-half," Ferdinand told BT Sport.
"There were mistakes and chinks in his armour, but I thought he would be able to iron them out. Unfortunately, he’s not been able to do that. Whether it’s the injuries he’s been tallying up over these last couple of years, he hasn’t found momentum in his game.
"It feels to me at the moment that Pep has almost lost that trust in him. Pep stuck by him a lot of times when he made mistakes in the past. Funnily enough, I spoke to Vincent Kompany at West Ham.
"I watched the game in the stands with Vincent a couple of years ago. I said, ‘What do you think of John Stones, seeing him day-in, day-out?’.
"He was totally convinced that this kid would be a player. It just hasn’t happened for him so far.”
