Guardiola ‘doesn’t want to give up’ on £66m deal but Man City will ‘wait for the summer’

Pep Guardiola ‘doesn’t want to give up’ on a deal to sign Andrea Cambiaso but Man City will not sign the Juventus defender before the transfer deadline, according to reports.
The Citizens have been having a rotten season by their high standards with Guardiola’s men losing 5-1 to second-placed Arsenal on Sunday in a humiliating defeat.
That result means they are now 15 points adrift of Premier League leaders Liverpool, who have a game in hand on their rivals, after finishing nine points in front of the Reds last term.
Man City have already backed Guardiola over the course of the winter transfer window with the signings of Omar Marmoush, Abdukodir Khusanov, Vitor Reis, Juma Bah and Christian McFarlane.
But Guardiola wanted one more deal for Juventus wing-back Cambiaso but Italian publication Calciomercato insist that Man City will now ‘wait for the summer’ to pursue the transfer again.
It’s understood that Guardiola ‘doesn’t want to give up’ on a deal for Cambiaso but an ankle injury has got in the way of a deal and Man City are happy to ‘talk about it again’ in the summer.
Negotiations at the end of the season will be ‘starting from the same request made in January: 80 million euros (£66m), or maybe a few less’.
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The feeling is that Man City ‘have only postponed the plunge, convinced that they can return to the player with more calm and also more availability.’
After their poor first half of the campaign, former Man City right-back Danny Mills reckons only Champions League glory could save them from a “disastrous season”.
Mills said: “The Champions League has to be Manchester City’s focus now. I think they will get in the top four. They’re starting to show a little bit of form now, so I think they will get into the top four. The title went a long time ago. Let’s forget about that.
“Success would be, for the stage they are at in the league, that they win the Champions League. That is the ultimate success.
“To say they’ve had a successful season, they would need to win that (the Champions League).
“That means beating Bruges on Wednesday night, which you would normally say it’s a given, but Bruges probably only need a point in that game for them to go through.
“It’s quite intriguing because a lot of the games in and around the teams are all playing each other and playing for something. A City win puts them through no matter what. There aren’t too many dead rubbers in this format.
“If they finish in the top four and get knocked out in the quarter finals, I think you’d have to say that would be a really poor, disastrous season for Manchester City. But I don’t expect that to happen. I think they will make the top four. If they don’t qualify for the play-off, then that has to go down as the biggest disaster in Pep’s managerial career.”
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