Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has claimed that he rejected Arsenal’s proposed idea of signing Raheem Sterling in a swap deal involving Alexis Sanchez moving to the Etihad.
The summer long transfer saga surrounding Sanchez ended with the Chilean reluctantly staying at Arsenal despite Manchester City agreeing a fee with the Gunners on deadline day.
Arsenal failed to sign Thomas Lemar as his replacement in the final hours of the window, which meant that they backed out of any deal to sell Sanchez to Manchester City.
Sterling’s name cropped up towards the end of the window as a potential makeweight in a deal for Sanchez to join the Citizens and Guardiola revealed that Arsenal were the ones who suggested the swap deal.
However, the Manchester City manager insisted that he outright rejected the offer of Sterling moving to Arsenal as he didn’t want to lose such an exciting young English talent.
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Guardiola said in a press conference earlier today: "When we started to speak with Arsenal in the last days, they wanted to make a swap with Raz.
“They talked to me and I said ‘no chance. zero chance. Not one per cent chance we will swap Raz because I trust a lot in him’.
“22 years old, English player, there is a lot of room to improve.
"The only deal we would do was cash. In the end Alexis stayed in Arsenal.”
Guardiola remained coy when asked about potentially signing Sanchez in January and said: “I don't know what will happen in the winter. Sometimes deals work, sometimes not."
