Pep’s delighted that £37m Sane is looking like a bargain

PEP Guardiola admits Leroy Sane looked like an expensive gamble at the start of the season.

Now, as winter turns into spring, the German looks like the perfect modern-day forward.

Guardiola, who was so insistent on signing Sane – even at a price of £37m last summer – recognised the potential of the former Schalke winger to become one of the game’s best.

And after a slow start at City, he is justifying that price tag.

“Always when you pay a lot of money, managers all over the world are expecting the best,” said Guardiola. “When it’s going well it is always cheap.

“When it’s going bad it’s always expensive. In the beginning it was expensive, now it’s cheap.”

The most intriguing part of the Sane story – a player who Bayern Munich planned to sign this summer – is the promise of how much better he can be.

Blessed with supreme balance, he is terrorising Premier League defenders.

“I think he has a lot of qualities,” added Guardiola. “He’s so fast, runs in behind like few players in the world.

“But he’s just 20-21 years old so the gap to become a really good player is still so big.

“With this talent it would be a pity not to try to realise all this potential that he has.”