Man City defender Nathan Ake opens up on his future after failed Chelsea transfer

Manchester City's Nathan Ake has opened up on his chances of working his way into Pep Guardiola's starting XI after a summer fuelled with talk surrounding his future.

Ake looked to be in line for a move away from City earlier on in the transfer window as former club Chelsea eyed a move for his servces. However, despite interest from the London club, it is believed that a £50m valuation of the player prevented Thomas Tuchel from getting his man.

The 27-year-old impressed against West Ham as he partnered fellow centre-back Ruben Dias to keep a clean sheet for Guardiola's side as they won 2-0 at the London Stadium.

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Talking to Sky Sports about the talk surrounding his future this summer, Ake said: "I feel like this is the season where everything is settled. I know what I have to do more or less; just try to keep improving and try to get game time.

"I was very happy at Man City last season as well. It's football, rumours go like this. You stay, and suddenly you play first game. The only thing I want now is to keep improving, doing well.

"The main aim is here [at City], very important games, we started well, but there's a long way to go. As a football player, you want to play as big a part as possible. I'm just going to keep trying to improve, and we'll see what happens.

"I don't want to say that [it's my starting centre-back place to lose]. Obviously, I had a good start so far, but it's a long season, we have so many good players. But I'm going to keep trying to do what I do, and hopefully we'll see."

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