Pep Guardiola addresses rumours linking Kylian Mbappé to Manchester City

Pep has insisted Manchester City are not interested

Pep Guardiola has dismissed rumours linking Manchester City with Paris Saint-Germain forward Kylian Mbappé after rumours of interest from City circulated around the media. It was reported that City were preparing a £200m bid for Mbappé in January, with PSG needing to balance the books in order to comply with Financial Fair Play regulations. However, if City were to spend such a sum of money in January, they would also need to sell one of their players to abide by the same rules, and Raheem Sterling was floated as a possible candidate. Guardiola is insistent that there are no plans to sell Sterling, though, nor to buy Mbappé. "That is not going to happen," he said. "Sometimes I don't understand where the news comes from.

"Manchester City aren't going to spend the money that Mbappé deserves, or that PSG deserves. PSG are not going to sell this kind of player to any other club in the world in the next years, I guess.

"That is not going to happen, Mbappé is not going to come here, we are not going to swap Raheem or another top player that we have."

Guardiola continued, asking for both City and PSG to be paid more respect regarding transfer rumours reported in the media. "I don't understand where sometimes the news comes from, I don't understand it.

"People should be more respectful of PSG, respectful of Manchester City, for the players from PSG, for the players from Man City, they should have more respect.

"Of course I am the second person to know exactly which players are targets, which players I want to sell or something like that. But it is what it is."

Manchester City are already well stacked for forward players - any January move recruits would likely come in to strengthen the defensive midfield area after City missed out on Jorginho to Chelsea in the summer.