GUARDIOLA Mega-money Sanchez bid could have unsettled our changing room and destabilized the season

WHY PEP BAILED OUT ON GUNNERS STRIKER

PEP GUARDIOLA claims Manchester City ended their long pursuit of Alexis Sanchez because they did not want to risk the stability of the club.

Guardiola backed City’s decision to give up on Sanchez after they felt the £35million transfer costs, plus the striker’s £500,000-a-week wage demands, were simply too much.

City have carefully developed their wage structure at the Etihad, and Sanchez’s salary would have dwarfed that of top-earner Sergio Aguero on £250,000 a week.

The Chile star’s signing might also have complicated Kevin De Bruyne’s contract negotiations when the Belgium playmaker, who is so important for City’s future, is close to signing a new £220,000-a-week deal.

Guardiola claimed the club is more important than any one transfer, even if he was keen to be reunited with 29-yearold forward Sanchez (below).

“In my periods at Barcelona and Bayern Munich, and now here, I never put pressure on the club to say I want those players, when the club believes and says it is too much,” said the City boss.

“I respect that decision and I move forward and look for another solution, because the stability of the club is the most important thing.

“Normally, we try to be stable with the wages of the players because it is good for the team and the stability of the club.”

City’s policy is not to rock the boat when their season is going so well and older fans will remember signing Rodney Marsh for a then-record £200,000 in March 1972, when they were top of the table, only to finish fourth. Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle blew an even bigger lead in the title race, after signing Faustino Asprilla in February 1996, and ultimately missing out to Manchester United.

Guardiola was philosophical about losing out to United for Sanchez and insisted it had not soured his relationship with his former Barcelona star.

“At the end, the players decide where they are going to play, and (sometimes) even their managers decide where they are going to play, so good luck!” he said.

“My opinion of Alexis remains the same. It was a pleasure to be with him at Barcelona and he has decided to move to another club and I wish him all the best.

“It’s not the first time it happened in my career and it’s going to happen again in the future.”

Despite missing out on Sanchez, and the fact Gabriel Jesus is crocked, Guardiola says he will not try to sign another forward this month.

Jesus should return in a couple of weeks from his knee injury, and Guardiola feels the Brazil star and Aguero are enough. He believes Raheem Sterling can also play up front and added:

“We have the two strikers and do not need another in that position.

“Others can play there in different circumstances.

Raheem can play there. He did at Old Trafford and in the States in pre-season.

“To buy a striker, who can only play there, that is not going to happen.”