Pep Guardiola issues Man City transfer update after Riyad Mahrez exit

Pep Guardiola admits he did not want to sell Riyad Mahrez this summer but says the club could not turn down Al-Ahli’s lucrative offer for him.

The 32-year-old was not included in City’s travelling squad for their pre-season trip to Asia and formally completed his exit on Friday.

City accepted an fee which could rise to £30million for the winger, a deal they felt was too good to turn down for a player that didn’t start every week.

In an ideal world, they might have kept him though and Guardiola admits he would have been more than happy for Mahrez to stay.

Guardiola said: “Definitely our thoughts were to stay here, definitely. I enjoyed as a manager to be with him. I had a special relationship with him. Our relationship was with incredible respect. He is one of the guys in my career who I saw who enjoyed the most – he would play today, tomorrow. Incredible skills and technical ability. Loved by the staff. Important figure in the success we have had in the last five years.

“I wish him and his family all the best,. It is not easy to replace this kind of player. He doesn’t feel the pressure. He is a guy who has to play every single day to be happy. I understand completely. I know how tough it was to not play in the FA Cup final and Champions League finals. It was really good to work with him. Really nice. I learned a lot.”

Mahrez’s exit leaves City a player lighter in attack heading into the new season and it remains to be seen how they’ll cope without him.

One option would be to sign a replacement, though Guardiola admits it is not necessarily a case of finding a like-for-like replacement.

He added: “Listen every player is every player, it’s numbers in the squad, the market is open until the end of August. We are not looking for a replacement for Riyad in terms of skill because every player is different. We will see what happens with loan players, and which players stay here. A few things are going to happen.

“Saudi Arabia has changed the market. A few months ago when Cristiano was the only one to go no one thought this many top, top players would play in the Saudi league. In the future there will be more and that’s why clubs need to be aware of what is happening. Riyad got an incredible offer and that’s why we could not say ‘don’t do it’.”