Pep Guardiola Insists Raheem Sterling Is Fully Committed to Man City Despite Arsenal Transfer Drama

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has insisted that Raheem Sterling is one hundred percent committed to the club, despite the England international said to have been mooted to be part of a swap deal for Arsenal star Alexis Sanchez. 

However, the City boss has declared that at no point did he consider a deal which would result in Sterling's departure from the Etihad in the transfer window, and seemingly Sterling was of a similar belief as Guardiola believes the 22-year-old would have called him if he was open to switch clubs. 

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A call never arrived on deadline day as both parties seemingly did not find it worthy of discussion, as Guardiola said, via the Manchester Evening News: "He didn't call me because it wasn't an issue. Never.

"I think I tried to help him since I arrived, his mood when I arrived was not at the top and last season he played really good.

"It was not debatable among the important people at the club - Txiki [Begiristain], Ferran [Soriano], many people - it was never considered that we would swap him. That was not an option.

"Always the decision was for the player to stay here to help us in that position. That's why I didn't call him, that's why he didn't call me, and he if was considering moving on, he should have called me.

"But it didn't happen because I think he was 100 per cent committed with us. It was not an option for him to move on to another club," he added.

The 22-year-old has scored two match saving goals in his last two outings for City, but he will be unavailable to face his former side, Liverpool, when Manchester City host the Merseysiders on Saturday due to a suspension picked up from his side's dramatic victory over Bournemouth last time out.