PEP: I TURNED DOWN POGBA SIGNING IN JANUARY

Guardiola stokes up derby with claim he was offered £89M man & Mkhitaryan in last window

PEP GUARDIOLA claims he rejected the chance to sign Paul Pogba and Henrikh Mkhitaryan in January.

The Manchester City boss says their agent Mino Raiola offered the players to him in the last transfer window.

City can win the Premier League title this evening by beating United in the Manchester derby and Guardiola made the explosive revelation in response to Raiola calling

PEP GUARDIOLA admits he could not succeed without a big pot of money.

Guardiola will lead Manchester City to the Premier League title in record-breaking time if they beat Manchester United this evening and he says Sheikh Mansour’s backing has been key. City’s owner has splashed out nearly £450million bankrolling Guardiola since he took over in July 2016 and the Catalan says he could not have done it without him. “I’m a lucky guy,” said the City boss. “I am so, so happy with what we have done this year. I can assure you one thing, it’s impossible to play the way we play, achieve the results we achieved, without top players. It’s impossible and today the top players cost a lot of money. “When people say, ‘You win because you spend €600m’, I don’t know how much money we spent in these two years, but I say they are right. It’s impossible to do that without money. “We need money to buy top players to play at that level all the time. To achieve these results, you need this investment. “If not, you need a miracle and I am not able to do that. “The only thing I would say is that all the big teams around the world – maybe in the last two years we spent more – on average over the last five or 10 years have spent a lot of money.”

As excited as City fans are by the prospect of winning the title against their fiercest rivals, Guardiola claims it will not top Sergio Aguero’s dramatic late winner to clinch their 2012 triumph. He also played down talk of putting one over his old rival Jose Mourinho.

“It’s not about Pep v Jose,” he said. “I respect him a lot. In the end it’s 2018 we were the better team and that’s what we want to live if it happens.

“Nothing will be more emotional than when Sergio scored that goal in 2012, nothing could compare to winning in the last minute, the last second, the last chance for the first title in 44 years.

“Of course we would be so happy to win the title, but nothing that happens in this club will be more exciting than what happened with the Aguero goal.”

City will break United’s record for the earliest title win if they wrap up the Premier League this evening and Guardiola claims their phenomenal campaign will never be repeated.

“In the future?” he said. “No way. Never is it going to happen again. Never.

“To win 18 games in a row? No way. It’s impossible. The opponents want to beat you, you’re a little bit more relaxed, the big achievement is already done so your intensity is sometimes lower.

“I have experience of that. I was in Barcelona four years and handled when you win, you win, you win – it’s much more demanding.

“Next season will be so, so complicated for us. This is not going to happen again. It’s impossible.”