Manchester City transfer rumour: Pep Guardiola's plans to sign players stalled after facing difficulty to offload players

Pep Guardiola.jpg
Pep Guardiola has his task cut out to bring in players at Manchester City

Manchester City boss, Pep Guardiola has settled into life at his new club and his players are getting used to his tactics which are said to be delightful by anyone who has worked with the Spaniard. The latest news from the City camp being that Guardiola has stopped overweight players from training until they get in the right shape and has banned junk food for all the players as he gets right down to business ahead of his first Premier League season.

Pep Guardiola wants to sign at least three to four players to complete his first transfer period at the club which will take his spending past £100 million. But he is facing some difficulty as the club needs to offload players in order to make space for their upgrades.

Leroy Sane from Schalke is the prime target for the Citizens with the two clubs set to be at loggerheads over his transfer fee. Gabriel Jesus and Marlos Moreno are the other targets who Guardiola is said to have a keen eye on.

Manchester City have already secured the services of Ilkay Gundogan for £21 million, Nolito for £13.8 million and Oleksandr Zinchenko for £1.7 million this summer. But to accommodate all the new faces in the squad, some of the present names have to make way in the coming month.

The inability of the club to sell the likes of Aleksander Kolarov, Samir Nasri, Jesus Navas and Wilfried Bony is making it difficult for the club to sign new players as the number of players in the first team squad is already high.

Also read: 10 most expensive signings in Manchester City history

With only 23 players allowed in the Champions League squad, Manchester City want to avoid the mistake of previous seasons where the club had to leave out the likes of a talented striker like Stevan Jovetic. Though the club has to make a loss now on offloading the players mentioned above, Pep Guardiola is reportedly willing to sell them as soon as an offer will arrive for them. First team players like Jesus Navas and Fernando are rumoured to be not at the level that Guardiola aspires them to be.

City are on their tour of China right now and will face Borussia Dortmund on 27th July in Shenzhen after the first overseas Manchester derby which was scheduled in China was cancelled after excessive rain and the poor state of the pitch.

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Edited by Staff Editor