Pep Guardiola has revealed that Manchester City need a striker and admitted that the Premier League champions will try once again to sign one in the upcoming summer transfer window.
City were heavily linked with a move for Tottenham Hotspur forward Harry Kane for the vast majority of the off-season which saw the England captain attract more than his fair share of tabloid headlines when he was fined for not reporting for pre-season training on time (Sky Sports).
Guardiola admitted at the end of August shortly before the window slammed shut that City were unable a deal to bring the 28-year-old to the Etihad since Spurs were not prepared to enter into talks to part company with their talisman (Manchester Evening News).
City have been without an out-and-out forward since Sergio Aguero departed for Barcelona at the end of last season.
Kane was in dazzling form last month when he put in a man of the match performance at the Eithad to guide Spurs to a surprise 3-2 win.
MEN have revealed that Borussia Dortmund’s Erling Haaland is City’s prime transfer target with Guardiola refusing to get drawn into names.
Guardiola said: “I think the club needs a striker, definitely but, I’m sorry, maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t agree with you. You say we play fantastically well without a striker because we are winning. When we are not winning, you say we need a striker, [that] I’m naive. ‘How do these guys play without a striker? In the Premier League you have to play with a striker’.
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“We try but sometimes it’s not possible. We have 14, 15, 16 players and after five/six in the academy who are top, top players, I love to work with that, everybody’s involved. It’s difficult for me to be a manager with 18, 19, 20 top-class players and, every weekend, nine or 10 players in the [stands], it’s impossible to handle it for a long, long time.
“We need a striker, I think the club is going to try, it hasn’t happened but in the end we adapt. We adapt to the players and never complain; they are too good for me, I admire them and I like to work with them.
“If we have a striker, we play in a different way but if you don’t have it you have to adapt with the quality that we have. If you don’t have one you have to play in a completely different way to United, Southampton, Liverpool, because they play another philosophy. In England, we are little bit like an exception for that. We have to play in this way, otherwise they are better.”
SpursWeb Opinion
The Harry Kane transfer rumour mill has already clicked into gear following Tottenham’s FA Cup exit which ended their only hope of a trophy this season, expect it to go into overdrive if the club fail to secure a top four finish and Champions League qualification.
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