Pep Guardiola shrugged off a question regarding his reported interest in signing Alexis Sanchez in the summer during his pre-Southampton press conference.
- Arsenal have reportedly offered Alexis a £300kpw contract
- Wenger refused to confirm or deny the forward’s mega-deal
- City are said to be confident of landing the Chilean in the summer
- Guardiola neither confirmed or denied interest
The Manchester City boss was visibly agitated by the line of questioning that particular journalist had taken.
Firstly, they asked how Pep felt about none of his senior players being included in the PFA Player of the Year nominations before swiftly linking Alexis’ nomination to transfer talk.
“It is not time to talk about that,” Pep said.
“It is not time to talk about that – about the players who are going to stay here – the hypothetical players who are coming here next season.
“We have a lot of business to do.”
Pep’s response was less cut and dry than back in December when he accused a journo of being a ‘liar’ after a story was printed claiming that the manager had been in contact with Alexis.
He doesn’t once deny wanting to sign Alexis or being actively after him, which obviously the media is running with.
However, as Pep was obviously a little short with the journo, as you can see from the video below, it’s not exactly a massive deal that he didn’t deny his interest in the Chilean. This alone wouldn’t bother me.
What is concerning though is that reports coming out of Manchester from reliable sources are claiming that City are confident that they will land Alexis in the summer. That, combined with the lack of denial, is what has me worried.