Manchester City will look to revive their season by signing up to three players in next month's transfer window, but Pep Guardiola fears the club will not get value for money.
The cash-strapped Premier League champions want a central midfielder, a full back and a striker. And Guardiola, whose side play Aston Villa on Saturday after one win in their last 11 games, said: 'We're not big fans of that but the circumstances of this season have been special. We talked about doing something.
'In winter that is only if we really need it, or if we can really find something. It's not easy to do. Clubs don't want to sell and players are so expensive. It depends on the market, we'll see.'
Newcastle's Bruno Guimaraes and Real Sociedad's Martin Zubimendi are high on City's target list. Number 6 appears to be the ideal area for City to strengthen, with Rodri likely to be out of action for the season after suffering a cruciate ligament injury earlier this season.
Mateo Kovacic has looked solid as a substitute, but a natural replacement would be preferable as the problems are clearly visible if the former Chelsea star is also missing.
Guardiola will hope reinforcements will help improve the leaky defence, which has conceded 23 goals in 16 games so far this season – more than eight of the Premier League's top ten.
Guimaraes is Newcastle's captain but has admirers from a number of other teams. he has sometimes looked wasted in a defensive midfield role but is used to playing there in the North East.
Zubamendi has been linked for a number of months now. The Spaniard – Rodri's understudy in Spain's Euro 2024 triumph – was set to join Liverpool this summer but changed his mind at the last minute.
Comments