Guardiola has no plans for January shopping spree

MANCHESTER CITY manager Pep Guardiola has dismissed signing another defender in January – and rejected the notion of a major rebuild of his squad next summer.

He will instead maintain his faith in Fernandinho at centre-back and await the return of Aymeric Laporte after his knee injury during the transfer window. City have been linked with Leicester City’s Caglar Soyuncu as they look to resolve problems in a rearguard shorn of captain Vincent Kompany, and then Laporte in August.

They are now without a clean sheet in seven games – a run deemed “not good enough” by Guardiola (right) – as they head to Burnley tonight, desperate for victory to cut Liverpool’s 11-point lead at the top.

But he said City’s transfer strategy has not changed. “No. Nope. I don’t want any players in January,” said Guardiola. “If we cannot do it in summer, we cannot do in January.

“We could not sign a centre-back (in the summer). Nico (Otamendi) continued and we decided to adapt Fernandinho in this position and that’s all. Sometimes the club wants to try to do their best, but we cannot. We have to adapt and adjust with the players that we have and next season we will see. We don’t have to rebuild too much.

“Rebuilding the team is seven or eight players, which we did in the second season when seven finished their contract because 11 players were over 30. Buy two or three players is not rebuild, it’s just substituting positions.” (© Daily Telegraph, London)

Burnley v Manchester City, Premier League 1 8.15