​Manchester City defender Kyle Walker has praised his manager Pep Guardiola, claiming that he is a friend to his players as well a coach.





In an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live , the England international spoke glowingly of his boss, whose managerial prowess has seen the Citizens storm to the ​Premier League title this season.





Walker said: " It's just like he's a friend. He's the manager, but he is a friend as well. If you didn't believe you were doing something wrong, or you could do this differently, he'd be quite open to you knocking on his door and having a coffee.

" He always says 'come and have a coffee with me, we'll get the computer and we'll go through it'. So, that's how it's quite open, he's very approachable. He texted me the other day because I beat him in the long drive competition in golf. Something like that I've never really had before [with a manager], where I've got a connection with someone that we can just exchange text messages."





The 28-year-old has flourished since joining the Citizens from Spurs at the start of the season, and looks set to be among the first players on Gareth Southgate's team sheet when England head to Russia for the World Cup.





Guardiola has been vital in Walker's progression, and has also been able to get some high quality performances out of Raheem Sterling.

Thanks to the fans for all the kind messages, this is for you! Personally, it’s been an amazing first season here and I can’t wait to push on again and win more titles! #sharkteam麗 #kw2 @mancity pic.twitter.com/sbIUfhrHFa — Kyle Walker (@kylewalker2) April 16, 2018

Continuing his day of interviews, Walker also told talkSport that he joined City to emulate two of his footballing icons: " A big reason why I signed with ​Manchester City was because I wanted to work with the manager of this calibre.





"He’s worked with two of my heroes I’ve watched for numerous years now, Dani Alves and Phillip Lahm, so I wanted him to pass on that information on to me.”