Dele Alli will not be joining Manchester City in the summer according to Pep Guardiola, who denied interest in the Tottenham Hotspur midfielder in his press conference today.

Alli has had another amazing season with a goal tally of 20 goals in all competitions which has resulted in interest from all the top clubs in the world.

Ex-Barcelona man Xavi made the headlines this week by saying Alli is “just the sort of player Guardiola would like to sign” but the City boss says Mauricio Pochettino “can stay calm” because he will not be in the running for Alli’s signature this summer.

The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager said: “We don’t want Dele Alli. He is a fantastic player. He is such good news for English football. He is a fighter, attacking the box he is one of the most fantastic players I’ve seen in my life.”

“Mauricio Pochettino has to stay calm. Dele Alli is going to be his player next season, I am pretty sure of that.”

Guardiola was speaking to the media ahead of a crunch Manchester derby with Manchester United on Thursday night where City will be boosted with the return of Gabriel Jesus to the squad. Meanwhile, United will be without star forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic but Guardiola believes it will not be too big a blow for the Red Devils.

He said: “Of course Ibrahimovic is a great player but they have other strikers such as Jesse Lingard, Marcus Rashford and Ashley Young that can get behind the defence. It will be a tough game. They have been playing without him but they achieved to play the way Mourinho wants. We will try to bring the game where we want.”

City are coming off the back of an FA Cup semi-final defeat to Arsenal which confirmed that Guardiola will complete a trophy-less season for the first time in his career. He was quick to play down the pressure though, saying: “I have been managing nine years and this is my first without a trophy. It had to happen and it happened. It will happen again if I manage a long time. But there are a lot of teams in Europe that won’t win anything this season.”

Guardiola will be hoping City boost their UEFA Champions League qualification hopes with a fan-pleasing win on Thursday against their biggest rivals.

Written by Kyle Dixon (@kyledixon95)