Pep Guardiola has played down Manchester City’s chances of signing Harry Kane and Lionel Messi, after they completed the £100m signing of Jack Grealish.
Messi has officially been a free agent since 1 July after he failed to agree personal terms over a renewal before his previous Barcelona contract expired.
The Argentine attacker had been expected to sign a new five-year deal with the Spanish club, which would have seen his salary reduced by 50%.
In a statement released on Thursday, however, Barca said both it and Messi were willing to extend his stay but LaLiga regulations made this impossible.
City came close to signing Messi last summer after a complex contract dispute with the La Liga club, while they also made advances in the summer window of 2016.
‘We spent £40m on Jack Grealish. We paid £100m and brought £60m. He will wear the No.10 because we were convinced with Grealish and we were were convinced Leo would continue at Barcelona, so right now he is not in our thoughts,’ said Guardiola.
While paying tribute to the player, Guardiola added: ‘I didn’t speak with the player or the president so I don’t know what has happened but as a supporter of the club I would love for him to have finished but today the club needs to be sustainable and what happened in the last year was really not good.
‘As a fan, I ahve incredible gratitude for the most extraordinary player I have seen in my life, for the titles he helped to Barcelona, to help me personally to help me to go to Munich and then to England.
‘More than that, the incredible amount of feelings and actions in front of the TV and watch what he can do with the ball, with his mates in one football game. Day by day, game by game, every three days he made something unique.
‘All I can say is thank you so much to bring Barcelona to another level, to allow Barcelona to dominate the world for a decade, and I wish him the best for the last few years of his career.’
He added: ‘It’s different from Jack. He had a release clause. harry Kane is an exceptional, extraordinary strike – of course we are interested – but he is a Tottenham player and if they don’t want to negotiate there is nothing more to say. If they want to, we will try.’
