Pep Guardiola admits 'anything can happen' in chase for Kylian Mbappe as Man City refuse to give up £160m pursuit

City face the European champions on Thursday and speaking ahead of the game in Los Angeles Guardiola refused to rule out a move for the 18-year-old Frenchman

Pep Guardiola has hinted Manchester City remain in the hunt for Kylian Mbappe (AFP)

Pep Guardiola has hinted Manchester City remain in the hunt for Kylian Mbappe despite Real Madrid appearing to have clinched a deal for the player.

Spanish reports on Tuesday suggested Real had agreed a fee with Monaco believed to be in the region of £160m, a new world record high.

City face the European champions on Thursday and speaking ahead of the game in Los Angeles Guardiola refused to rule out a move for the 18-year-old Frenchman as he looks for further improvements to his squad.

"The player is still at Monaco - still on that team," he said. "Anything can happen - we are still looking at a lot of other players, but he is still on that team."

He added: "We have the two exceptional forwards in Gabriel (Jesus) and Sergio (Aguero). We will see. The market finishes on August 31, which is not good for the managers.

"The competition (Premier League) starts on the 12th (of August) and the market is still open. That is not good for all the clubs. We will see until the end of the transfer window."

Madrid's pursuit of Mbappe is bolstered by funds gained from the sales of Alvaro Morata to Chelsea and Danilo to City themselves.

But Guardiola isn't concerned by Real's perceived financial might and believes his side can match them after already spending over £200m this summer.


 Mbappe's future remains firmly up in the air 
 (AFP)

"Madrid doesn't have more than Manchester City has," he added. "There's a lot of teams that are playing in the Champions League that are in the Premier League.

"Players are always important and we always try to get the best players possible. Abu Dhabi came in and they invested in the team and over the past few years we've climbed to the top.

"We've come a long way but in order to get to the level of Barcelona and Real Madrid we just need time."