Pep Guardiola Refuses to Be Drawn Into Harry Maguire Speculation as Man City Hunt for New Defender

Pep Guardiola has confirmed that Manchester City are aiming to bring a new centre-back to the club following the departure of club legend and captain Vincent Kompany.

After winning the treble with City last season, Kompany left Manchester this summer to take up a role as player-manager at his boyhood club RSC Anderlecht in Belgium.

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As reported by Manchester Evening News, Guardiola has confirmed that he is still in the market for a replacement centre-back, but is happy with his options should they not be able to sanction a move.

Responding to reporters about his defender search, Guardiola said: "We will see, but yeah we are looking for some names.

"At the same time we have three centre-backs who can play there and we have two young players in the second team who can help us. We shall see if the market is possible and the club believes we can spend that money, but if they don’t, we shan’t spend it.”

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City have been competing with rivals Manchester United to sign Leicester City and England centre-back Harry Maguire, but the Spaniard would not be drawn on any speculation, saying simply: "He is a Leicester player.

"I know some people like Bayern Munich like to talk a lot about Leroy [Sane], but usually, I never speak about players at other clubs. What is going to happen, is going to happen.”

Kompany's departure not only leaves a gap in the starting team, but also leaves the role of club captain vacant. However, Guardiola insisted it is not up to him as to who takes on the armband next season, as he said: "All these things about leadership, picking this one or that one. It will happen naturally.

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"The captain had to handle the locker room, not me. If there are problems with me, the captain represents their decisions. They have to pick their captain. The captain is the players’ spokesperson to me and to the club."