Everton are demanding more than the £50m with which City opened talks.
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However, the Citizens are prepared to match the Ligue 1 champions’ record to secure Stones’ signature. We want to avoid that.
Apparently, he did not make the cut – further raising doubts about his future at City – despite Guardiola’s blasé responses masking what looks like a non-blasé approach to running his football side.
On Thursday, City beat Borussia Dortmund 6-5 in a penalty shootout in Shenzhen after drawing 1-1, Sergio Aguero’s 76th-minute goal being cancelled out by Christian Pulisic’s last-minute equaliser.
“We’ve still got one, possibly two games left of pre-season so hopefully I’ll get another chance and see what happens”.
Given his preferred style of play, which includes a relentless work ethic to win possession back quickly, Guardiola will undoubtedly want his entire squad in great condition for the new campaign in order to effectively carry out his ideas.
Guardiola, who had warned his players about the dangers of being unfit after Gael Clichy confirmed some first-team stars had been banished from training, issued a warning to Samir Nasri, who has yet to feature in pre-season.
After already confirming deals for İlkay Gündoğan, Nolito, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Aaron Mooy earlier this summer, Guardiola was quizzed on the prospects of adding Stones and Sane to his ranks as City’s spending approaches £100m. We start in two weeks.
He is also interested in Germany forward Leroy Sane but would not reveal if a deal for either player was close. I know Fabregas is a good man, a good boy and is not a player to have this type of situation. Now we know that Guardiola definitely wants them.
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“If he comes we’ll be happy, if he stays in Schalke I will be happy for the fans and for the Schalke club”, Guardiola explained, as quoted by ESPN.
