Pep Guardiola rules out Manchester City moving for another top-class midfielder after Jorginho snub
City thought that Jorginho was heading to the Etihad until Chelsea beat them to a £57.4m deal
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PEP GUARDIOLA has ruled out moving for another high-profile midfielder after being snubbed by Jorginho.
Manchester City were sure they had landed the Italy international — until Chelsea nipped in to seal a £57.4million deal last week.
Defensive midfield was one of the positions the Premier League champions were looking to strengthen this summer.
The club have continued to be linked with both Bayern Munich’s Thiago Alcantara and Miralem Pjanic of Juventus.
But it is understood neither of those names are now under consideration at the Etihad for this summer and they are highly unlikely to spend big.
A new face of some kind is not out of the question — but it seems certain £60m club-record signing Riyad Mahrez will be the only big name to arrive in this window.
City boss Guardiola’s priority is to get fringe players such as Joe Hart, Alex Zinchenko, Patrick Roberts and Jason Denayer fixed up with new clubs.
All four have travelled to Chicago and all are likely to get a run-out against Borussia Dortmund in the International Champions Cup in the early hours of tomorrow.
Director of football Txiki Begiristain has stayed behind to work on outgoings — but will also be looking at getting key players fixed up with new contracts in the coming weeks.
That includes Raheem Sterling, 23, whose decision to put talks on hold until after the World Cup could now backfire.
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His camp were hoping he would shine in Russia, grabbing the attention of the European giants and pushing his value higher. Instead, Sterling had a rather mixed tournament despite England reaching the semi-finals — and will now be praying City are still willing to improve his current £170,000-per-week deal.
He has two years left on his existing contract and would face being sold next summer unless an extension can be agreed in the next 12 months.
Leroy Sane, 22, and Gabriel Jesus, 21, are also pencilled in for talks over improved deals at the Etihad.
Sane — who had the summer off following his shock omission from the German World Cup squad — has also teamed up with the squad on their US tour.
The ex-Schalke forward surprised his team-mates by arriving with a new look, having styled his hair into corn-rows.