Pep Guardiola has admitted Manchester City could struggle to land their first-choice transfer targets this summer if they miss out on the .

City are currently in fifth place, which will be enough to qualify for next season's Champions League, courtesy of the Premier League's coefficient ranking with UEFA. Although City spent around £180million on four signings in January, they will look to strengthen again this summer, with Kevin De Bruyne leaving and others likely to exit to freshen up the squad.

City have been linked with Bayer Leverkusen's Florian Wirtz and Nottingham Forest's Morgan Gibbs-White, with Guardiola admitting the Champions League could be a major factor in which players they are able to sign. “It's a good question,” said Guardiola, whose takes his team to on Saturday. “It depends on the players we want and whether they just have one option.

“If they have many, I'm pretty sure the players take a look to the ones in the Champions League, of course. Maybe players will come anyway and then there are the other ones who say they don't want to go because of no Champions League.

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“So I don't know. I didn't speak with one player potentially for the next season, so I don't know. In the conversations with the club, we don't have one list for the Champions League and one list for relegation battle.”

Asked what impact in would have on City if they were to miss out on the Champions League, Guardiola said: “I will let you know. For all the clubs it's better to be in the Champions League than the , that’s for sure.

“But you have to earn it. Nothing in this is taken for granted and you have to deserve it to play next season there.” On whether current members of City's squad could seek to move this summer in the absence of Champions League football next season, Guardiola said: “They have contracts. Except for Kevin, all the others have contracts.

“The club and organisation decide the best way. Now I'm not so concerned about the club working behind the scenes. What I'm concerned about is these final six games and semi-final. After that we have one week to 10 days off and on June 5, start again.

“Seven days before we will fly to the United States and prepare for the Club World Cup.” Guardiola acknowledged it is different playing for a Champions League place rather than the title, with their four-year reign as English champions about to come to an end.

“It's different when you play for titles, but we play next Saturday to reach another final in the FA Cup,” said Guardiola. “Playing every three days doesn’t give you time to disconnect and when that happens it's important that the training is good, relax the players for the moment of the game and then 3pm on Saturday is the key.”

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