Guardiola denies reports of Man City move for Badstuber

Pep Guardiola has denied reports linking Manchester City with a move for Bayern Munich defender Holger Badstuber.

The Germany international has suffered from frequent injury problems but is now fit, and Kicker claimed on Friday that he was set to join an English club on loan for the rest of the season.

City have been named as a potential suitor due to Guardiola's ties with Bayern but the Catalan dismissed the speculation after his side's 5-0 victory over West Ham.

Guardiola did admit, however, that he was open to the idea of bringing in a centre-back if Vincent Kompany could not prove his fitness ahead of the second half of the season.

"No, in that sense, no," Guardiola said when asked about the speculation around Badstuber. "We have to speak with the club about what is the situation, because hopefully Vincent can help us, but Vincent in the last two years he was like this [with injuries].

"We have Nico [Otamendi], John [Stones] and [Aleksandar] Kolarov, and Kola is a full-back, and of course we have Tosin [Adarabioyo], and Tosin is still young. When we arrive now in the Premier League, in the Cup, in the Champions League, if something happens with the injuries we don’t have enough.

"We are evaluating if there’s a chance to take one. I know Holger, he’s a fantastic player, a fantastic guy, but he’s a Bayern Munich player, and we should first of all speak with them and with him.

"Now on the table there are no names because we had a lot of games, but now we have 10 days off, 10 days until Everton, so we have time to discuss with Txiki [Begiristain, City director of football], with the club, what is the best for the rest of the season."