Guardiola in the market for a centre-half

Injuries to John Stones and Vincent Kompany have laid City's lack of options in the heart of defence clear for all to see and has pushed a defender right to the top of City's thinking ahead of the re-opening of the transfer market in a little over two weeks' time.

Real Sociedad's Inigo Martinez and Southampton's Virgil Van Dijk are thought to be very much on City's radar but whilst Guardiola confirmed that he is keen on another body, he insisted that City would not sign a player for the sake of it.

"We just speak about [January transfer signings] with the club and Txiki because in the central defender position we don't have many players, especially in this situation," said Guardiola ahead of Saturday's heavyweight clash with Tottenham.

"Vincent is always injured, he fights a lot to be ready but sometimes he is not able to be fit consistently and we have just three central defenders in that moment for competition.

"Maybe we need one more guy in that position, we are talking about that but of course in winter time it is so complicated.

"We don't want to sign someone for three or four months, we want to sign them for years and makes sure they are the right guy, if this doesn't happen we are not going into the market."