Blues close in on £300m spending as they eye Jonny
...but Jose says his deals are done
CITY could take their spending to £300m in the final week of the transfer window as they aim to secure deals for Alexis Sanchez and Jonny Evans.
Pep Guardiola still wants to add to his squad before Thursday’s deadline – with City hoping Arsenal will finally relent over Sanchez.
West Brom are prepared to sell Evans, but are holding out for closer to their £30m valuation.
Guardiola, who has already spent £220m on six players this summer, believes he still needs to strengthen at both ends of the pitch. Guardiola said: “We have five or six days left, and I think the market is going to move. Now it’s difficult, and it was difficult before. “You have to spend more money to buy the players right now – not just City, but all the clubs. I think there are a lot of clubs with players who are not going to play and they are looking for the best solution for the clubs, and especially for the players. They will wait until the last minute to make a deal cheaper and better for three sides – the players, clubs and managers.” Meanwhile, Ilkay Gundogan completed 60 minutes for City’s U23s last night in his comeback from injury.
KEVIN de Bruyne is in the mood.
And he is happy for City to be saddled with the tag of Premier League title favourites.
Pep Guardiola’s recent claim the Belgian ace can be his key man as long as he is ‘happy’ raised a few eyebrows, with the City manager’s comments hinting De Bruyne maybe needed a touch of mollycoddling.
The Catalan said: “Since I arrived I think Kevin, when his mood is optimistic, he’s happy and quite well, he makes performances like this.
“It is difficult to find a player with his qualities, he runs and fights and moves and helps team-mates.
“When his mood is positive, he is able to do whatever he wants.”
De Bruyne has revealed what Guardiola has demanded from him – and is getting on with it with the minimum of fuss.
He says the Blues boss wants simply him ‘to do as much as possible’ and the midfielder feels fully prepared to do just that.
“There’s not just one thing that he really says in that aspect,” he added. “I just tried to have a good pre-season.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve had a long pre-season so I think I look sharp, I feel fresh, so I just try to do my thing.
“I know people are taking a closer look at me, the players in the midfield, the strikers, but it doesn’t matter.
“We need to win our games no matter what happens.”
De Bruyne insists he feels little pressure in living up to City’s status as title favourites. “It’s the same as every season because every year we are the favourites,” he said.
“Last year we were the favourites and even the first year I was here they were talking about us being the favourites, so it will always be.
“I think we have six favourites every time so if one wins, people say the other five failed.
“It’s very difficult – Chelsea, Liverpool, United, Tottenham, Arsenal – will say the same if they don’t win.
“They want to win the title and we want to win the title, so it makes a good competition in the end for all of us.” And the Belgian believes Guardiola’s reshaping of the squad – and the spending that was necessary to achieve it – has given City a fresh, younger look.
“We will try to win, but I think everybody invests a lot,” added the midfield ace.
“There’s a project going on and I think if everyone looks at the big picture everybody sees that a lot of the older players were released, and we bought players who were almost all 23 or under so it’s a new team.
“It’s a new project and obviously it takes time and it takes money.”