Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has claimed that ‘anything can happen’ in Kylian Mbappe’s potential world record transfer saga this summer.
According to reports in Spain, Real Madrid have reached an agreement in principle to sign the French wonderkid in a record breaking £161 million transfer move, although AS Monaco were quick to deny those reports on Tuesday.
While according to the Dailymail, Manchester City are preparing to hijack Madrid’s proposed deal to sign the 18-year-old, who scored 26 goals and provided eight assists last season as Monaco were crowned Ligue 1 champions, while they also reached the semi-finals of the Champions League.
Despite acknowledging that Real Madrid are the front-runners to lure the France International this summer, City boss Pep Guardiola has backed his club to compete with the Spanish giants for Mbappe’s signature.
“The player is still at Monaco – still on that team,” Guardiola said in Spanish, translated by a City representative at his press conference.
“Anything can happen – we are still looking at a lot of other players, but he is still on that team.”
“Madrid doesn’t have more than Manchester City has. There’s a lot of teams that are playing in the Champions League that are in the Premier League,” said the 46-year-old Spaniard.
“Players are always important and we always try to get the best players possible. Abu Dhabi came in and they invested in the team and over the past few years we’ve climbed to the top.
“We’ve come a long way but in order to get to the level of Barcelona and Real Madrid we just need time.”
Manchester City have also been heavily linked with a move to sign Chile International Alexis Sanchez but Guardiola refused to discuss the future of Arsenal’s star man.
“We have the two exceptional forwards in Gabriel (Jesus) and Sergio (Aguero). We will see. The market finishes on August 31, which is not good for the managers,” he said.
“The competition (Premier League) starts on the 12th (of August) and the market is still open. That is not good for all the clubs.
“We will see until the end of the transfer window.”
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