Manchester City defender John Stones admits it's been difficult seeing several senior players depart this summer.

City have lost Stones' England teammate Raheem Sterling, club captain Fernandinho and popular members of the dressing room Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko.

"I'm always confident we can be successful. Whoever has come in, they have always been great from the start," he said at the premiere of City's latest documentary 'Together: Champions Again!'.

"We obviously spend that much time together and get to know people on a personal level first and then we go out on the training pitch and see what they can bring there and the quality they have. Whoever has come in has stepped up and played different positions.

"It's sad to see people go, whether it is retirement or wanting a new challenge and that's hard because we have so many good friends and good memories on the pitch but we won't forget those.

"You kind of don't want that to end, you want those memories. But that's football, there's always new people coming in and it is credit to the backroom staff and people involved in recruiting that the character fit of players that have come in do so well in the team."