English Premier League side Manchester City's coach Pep Guardiola rejected claims of contacting rival football club Arsenal's star forward Alexis Sanchez's to persuade him to join his club.
Chilean newspaper El Mercurio reported on Monday that Guardiola made personal contact with Alexis on Saturday just hours after the striker had scored a hat-trick against West Ham in the Premier League, in Arsenal's 5-1 win.
To that, the former FC Barcelona coach was quoted as saying, "Absolutely false", by goal.com on Monday. "The journalist is a liar."
Guardiola answered the question in Catalan and, after his response was translated into English, he left local reporters in no doubt by adding: "He's a liar, guys. The journalist is a liar."
About City's Champions League game against Celtic on Tuesday, Guardiola said there will be changes in the team as they have already qualified to the last 16.
"There will be changes tomorrow, definitely," he was quoted as saying by the football-specific portal. "I am so happy to give minutes to people who deserve to play and who did not play in the last games."
But he would not be drawn into saying whether he will play star striker Sergio Aguero, who was on Monday suspended for four domestic league matches for misconduct and will not return to action until January 31, when City play against Liverpool.
"If Sergio is going to play or not, I am going to decide today or tomorrow. I don't know at the moment."
--IANS
dm/sam/vt
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