Guardiola fires warning to Arsenal over Sterling interest

Pep Guardiola has warned Arsenal not to waste their energy in a bid to sign Raheem Sterling after categorically ruling out his Manchester City departure.

Arsenal failed in their attempts to include Sterling in a swap deal for Alexis Sanchez at the end of the summer transfer window and City have no intentions of selling their No.7.

Guardiola is expected to renew City’s interest in Sanchez in January but the Spaniard has told Arsenal not to bother mentioning Sterling’s name in future conversations.

“Raz [Sterling] is staying here,” the Manchester Evening News quote Guardiola as saying this weekend. “The club trust him – that is why we have invested a lot of money in him.

“The players we have are going to stay. If they want to leave they are going to leave, but he wants to stay. If players want to leave they have to ask the chairman, but there is no chance of that, he is going nowhere.”

Sterling has been in superb goalscoring form for City this season and took his goal tally to five in the Premier League after scoring a brace against Crystal Palace on Saturday.

It took the 22-year-old 15 league games to reach that milestone last season, while it has only taken five attempts on this occasion.