Pep Guardiola targets three defenders as Aleksandar Kolarov told he can leave

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has confirmed that he is in the market for another “two or three defenders” after allowing Aleksandar Kolarov to leave the club.

The Serbia international was expected to remain at the Etihad Stadium for the final year of his contract, having survived Guardiola’s initial cull of full-backs at the start of the summer.

Kolarov, who has been at City for the past seven years, has now been granted his wish to join Roma, with a £6.3m switch close to being finalised.

Guardiola was unwilling to stand in the former Lazio man’s way and is now targeting more defensive options before the transfer window closes.

“I don’t like to work with people who don’t want to stay,” he told reporters. “Kola helped me a lot last season in terms of many, many things. But he had a big chance to go back to Rome where he was before and he spoke to me, the club and asked me to leave. I don’t like to stay with players who don’t want to stay.

“That’s why its the best option for everybody. I wish him all the best because he’s a really nice guy. We had an excellent relationship. I was very pleased to train him and I wish him and his family the best. We don’t have another option. We don’t have full-backs, we try to buy full backs on the right side, not just Kyle [Walker], because the other three full backs we didn’t extend the contracts.

“Kolarov is one step to go to Roma. That’s we don’t have any other options. Of course we would like to have the players as soon as possible. We know the transfer market and how complicated it is and we are going to find the best solution. We need defenders. We need two or three defenders.”

City have been strongly linked with Danilo and Benjamin Mendy of Real Madrid and AS Monaco respectively over the past seven days.