Get the biggest City stories, analysis and transfer window updates delivered straight to your inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Manchester City have stepped up their plans for the summer transfer market with Benjamin Mendy's struggles continuing and a potential ban looming.

Pep Guardiola said in January that the club were not interested in doing major business for next season and even suggested that there could even be no new arrivals at the Etihad in summer, citing the need to balance both the books and the locker room, and the difficulty of bringing players in.

The club have missed out on Jorginho and Dani Alves at the last minute in recent years, while the stance not to overpay for players has also seen targets such as Fred and Alexis Sanchez move elsewhere.

However, a recent transfer ban given to Chelsea by FIFA lasting two windows following an investigation into their signing of Under-18 players has raised the possibility that City, also being investigated, could suffer the same fate with similar bans handed out to Atletico, Real Madrid and Barcelona in the last five years.

A holding midfielder is a priority signing in the summer window for the Blues, and they have also been looking at left-backs for some time. On top of that, Guardiola is looking at another two additions.

"I don’t know what’s going to happen but there are three or four positions I think we have to try to look for and some ideas we have," said Guardiola. "I don’t know in the end what is going to happen but it is an option to buy a left-back."

Mendy is becoming an increasing problem for City. He has not played a league game since November 11 having also missed most of last season with injury, and Guardiola made the startling claim that he was only on the bench against West Ham to make up the numbers rather than being fit enough to make it on merit.

So good is the Frenchman when he is on the pitch that only 16 players in the league have more than his five assists this season and more than any other City player he changes the way the team play, but his injuries have meant the club cannot count on him going forward.

“Today, he’s not fit. It’s not about English football, it’s the fact that he’s not able to play, he has been injured during two seasons," said the coach. "If it happens in two seasons it can happen in three. Hopefully not, we’ll work with that, he’s working with that, but the truth is we could use him in few games.

"That is the reality. At the end the strongest guys are there every day. That is the truth. That’s why we are looking for, maybe, you know, for the next season.”