Pep Guardiola appears to have ruled out any further signings at Manchester City for the coming season.
The Premier League champions have made just one major addition to their squad this summer in the club record £60million acquisition of Riyad Mahrez.
City had made the recruitment of a defensive midfielder a priority but, after losing out on Jorginho to Chelsea, they may not head back into the market before Thursday’s transfer deadline.
City manager Guardiola does have some other options in the position, which could include deploying central defender John Stones in a midfield role. The England international briefly played in a more advanced position during Sunday’s Community Shield win over Chelsea at Wembley.
Asked if Stones could play there again, Guardiola said on Sky Sports’ Premier League Launch Show: “I don’t know, I didn’t put it in a training session. It was 10-15 minutes.
“We have Fernandinho, (Ilkay) Gundogan can play there. We don’t have many. I think we are not going to make any signings more this season.
“John, for the quality and personality he has, he is a tall guy, I think he can play there but I don’t know because we have never tried before. We will see during the season.”
Mateo Kovacic is eager to secure a summer move to Manchester City, according to reports.
The source suggest the Real Madrid midfielder is eager to complete a move to the Etihad Stadium ahead of Thursday’s transfer deadline.
Kovacic is reportedly desperate to leave the Santiago Bernabeu this summer and has refused to return to training until a decision is made over his future.
The report suggests Kovacic is eager to secure first-team football next season and will force his way out of the club if his demands are not met.
According to the report both City and Chelsea have been approached by intermediaries looking to manufacture a move to the Premier League, with reports in Spain suggesting Chelsea could complete a loan-deal this week.
City had identified Mateo Kovacic as a potential Jorginho transfer alternative earlier in the year, but there is no suggestion they would like to make a move yet.
However, the new Real Madrid manager Julian Lopetegui remains coy over transfer speculation surrounding Kovacic and his international teammate Luka Modric, “I think that Modric and Kovacic are going to be very happy to play for Real Madrid,” he said.
Joe Hart has ended his 12-year association with Manchester City to join Burnley on a two-year deal.
The former Blues stopper leaves the Etihad for an undisclosed fee and will compete with Tom Heaton and Anders Lindegaard for the no.1 spot at Turf Moor, with Nick Pope injured.
Argentinian football president Chiqui Tapia has confirmed he tried to get Pep Guardiola to become the new manager of Argentina this summer.
They were reportedly offering Guardiola $12million-a-year until 2022, report CityWatch.
However, Guardiola’s wage demands proved too much, regardless of whether the Spaniard wanted to take the job.
“We tried to hire Guardiola, but it’s very difficult … you have to have a fat wallet,” Tapia said.Guardiola gave his verdict on his side’s preparations for the season ahead, and spoke about how his side can improve on their record-breaking exploits of their title-winning campaign.
On new ideas for the upcoming season Guardiola said,”The fundamentals will be the same but we found a lot problems attacking against the 5-4-1 formation and the one, the striker being with the holding midfielder and 10 players being so deep. We are thinking about how you counter against that system. In football, people say what do you do? What way do you play? First of all I have to know the quality of my players. I know that but I also have to know how the opponent is going to play. Do they play with four or five at the back? Is it high pressing or playing deep? Long balls or ball possession? It’s completely different and that’s why football is so nice. Every game is completely different.”