Man City Financially Capable Of Completing Record Signing, Warns Guardiola
Reuters / Lee Smith
Man City are willing to go head-to-head with European titans Real Madrid in the race for AS Monaco’s Kylian Mbappe, and are well capable of competing financially, Pep Guardiola has boldly claimed.
Real Madrid were off the back of a world record bid of £160 million for Mbappe as they were lacing up their boots to face City for a pre-season friendly in LA. During a pre-match interview, the City boss made some bold statements, and seemingly warned the Galacticos that they could be robbed of the Monaco star’s signature.
Los Blancos boss Zinedine Zidane has been eyeing the 18-year-old ever since his goal tally for Monaco started gaining significant weight, and is prepared to break the world transfer record, whilst also offering a 6-year contract worth £270,000-a-week to the youngster. The former Galactico clearly means business here.
Reuters / Eric Gaillard
“Madrid doesn’t have more than Manchester City have,” Guardiola said prior to Real’s 4-1 defeat to City on Thursday.
“Over the past five or six years we climbed to the top and we’re now in the top three or four. In order to get to the level of Real Madrid or Barcelona we just need time. The Premier League is so attractive and the agreements are good. All the clubs think about their potential and their squads getting better.”
Guardiola also highlighted the importance of their Abu Dhabi investors behind the club’s climb to the elite tier.
Meanwhile, the Mancunian giants have already crossed their spending record this summer with a tally over £200 million, while adding the man-power of Kyle Walker, Bernardo Silva, Danilo, Ederson, and most recently, Benjamin Mendy. Clearly, the City manager has given high priority to defensive prowess.
The English side have just one more pre-season match against Tottenham on Saturday, before they return from their pre-season tour, as a new campaign approaches rapidly.
Written by Ashish Sreejith 
Have had two addictions in life- playing football and watching football. Usually described as introverted but not when it comes to speaking and writing about the beautiful game of football.