Guardiola won't rule out Mbappe move

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has refused to rule out a move for Monaco forward Kylian Mbappe, who has been heavily linked with Real Madrid.

Monaco have denied agreeing a world-record £161m (€180m) transfer fee with Real Madrid for Mbappe, and Guardiola is still hopeful Manchester City can hijack the deal.

"The player is still at Monaco - still on that team," Guardiola said at a press conference ahead of City's International Champions Cup tie against Real Madrid in Los Angeles on Thursday, 27 July which will be shown live on eir sport 2 [kick off 4.35 am Irish time].

"Anything can happen - we are still looking at a lot of other players, but he is still on that team."

City have made a world-record bid for the 18-year-old, and are now waiting for a response from Monaco vice-president Vadim Vasilyev.

The Premier League club believe that Real Madrid need to sell Gareth Bale, probably to Manchester United, to free up the funds to sign the young France international.

"Madrid doesn't have more than Manchester City have," Guardiola said. 

"Players are very important and we always try to get the best players possible.

"Abu Dhabi came in and invested in the team. Over the past five or six years we climbed to the top and we're now in the top three or four.

"In order to get to the level of Madrid or Barcelona we just need time."

In other news, Brazil right-back Danilo says he rejected a late bid from Chelsea and a plea from Zinedine Zidane to stay at Real Madrid, to sign for City in a £26.5m move on Sunday.

"It happened very fast," the 26-year-old said. 

"I was training with Real Madrid, Pep called me and I was very motivated to make this change and start to work with him.

"I was sure I needed to change. I needed to think a bit more about myself and find a place where I had more options.

"It wasn't a difficult decision to choose City over Chelsea.

"The moment City called me and Pep called me, I knew what I had to do."

Photo Getty Images/Richard Heathcote

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