Pep Guardiola hopes Manchester City complete signing of Josko Gvardiol soon

Pep Guardiola is hoping Manchester City complete the signing of defender Josko Gvardiol within the next few “hours or days”.

The 21-year-old Gvardiol was undergoing a medical with City on Friday afternoon ahead of his proposed move from RB Leipzig.

The treble-winners are closing in on a deal for the Croatia international and are understood to have agreed a fee of €90 million (£77.6m) with Leipzig.

Speaking at a pre-match press conference ahead of Sunday’s Community Shield clash with Arsenal at Wembley, City boss Guardiola said: “Regarding Gvardiol – what a beautiful surname he has – he’s doing a medical test.

“Everybody knows he’s here, and hopefully we can finish the deal in the next hours, the next days.”

Put to Guardiola that completion of the deal would give him six central defenders, he said: “The season is so long, there is many, many games. (It is) absolutely not (too many).”

When asked if, after Gvardiol, City would be done in the transfer marker, Guardiola said: “I don’t know. I think it is going to move, something. Not yet.”

City have already this summer signed Mateo Kovacic from Chelsea, while outgoings have been fellow midfielder Ilkay Gundogan going to Barcelona at the end of his contract and forward Riyad Mahrez joining Saudi Arabian outfit Al-Ahli.

Kyle Walker has been linked with Bayern Munich and Bernardo Silva with Barcelona and Saudi Arabia, and Guardiola said: “They are so important players for us. We want them, we are going to do everything.

“It’s not like Gundo, finishing a contract – they have a contract. We want them to stay because they want to stay, and to replace these two players is so, so difficult.

“We lost two incredible players for us, Ilkay and Riyad in the last seasons were massively