Manchester City manager Josep Guardiola has brushed off debate around the club s spending insisting it is relative to ambition.

City landed Jack Grealish for £100 million from Aston Villa in the off-season and have been heavily linked with a big-money move for Tottenham s Harry Kane.

In 2020, City purchased Ferran Torres from Valencia for £20m, Nathan Ake from Bournemouth for £40m and Ruben Dias from Benfica for £62m, with their total off-season transfer expenditure reaching almost £144m.

Guardiola pointed to the fact the club sold players to the region of £97m last off-season, while they have again made money selling peripheral players such as Ivan Ilic, Jack Harrison and Lukas Nmecha.

I said last year that we couldn’t spend £100m, Guardiola to…

After years of waiting, Carlo Ancelotti believes Real Madrid will win LaLiga this season, with Cristiano Ronaldo to top the goalscoring charts.

While Madrid have reigned supreme in Europe, winning two Champions League titles in three seasons, they have played second-fiddle to arch-rivals Barcelona and Atletico Madrid domestically.

Madrid have not claimed LaLiga since 2012, with Barca and Atletico sharing the four trophies since, but former boss Ancelotti now in charge of German champions Bayern Munich has backed the capital club and Ronaldo for success.

In Spain it is difficult, but I think that after so many years Real Madrid will win the league title, Ancelotti told RAI.

And Cristiano Ronaldo will be the top scorer.

Madrid s LaLiga quest has…

Tottenham Hotspur are considering making a bid for Manchester United winger Ashley Young, .

The North London club had made Crystal Palace’s Yannick Bolasie their top transfer target though they have been deterred by the Eagles’ £25m valuation.

The DR Congo international is thought to be keen on a move to White Hart Lane, but Palace are in no mood to let him go without a fight.

England international duo Aaron Lennon and Andros Townsend have both been linked with a move away from Spurs this summer though they are unlikely to leave without reinforcements being brought in first.

Young has spent four seasons at Old Trafford so far, having signed from Aston Villa in the summer of 2011.

He has made one hundred and fifteen appearances in all co…

Serbian international midfielder Sergej Milinkovic-Savic has dazzled the entire football world with his Lazio displays over the course of the last two years.

The 22-year-old has consequently emerged as a transfer target for a host of Europe’s greatest clubs with the. Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Barcelona and most recently Paris Saint-Germain are all said to be keeping close tabs of the Lazio starlet.

The world has already taken a good notice of the Serbian but what is it exactly that makes Sergej Milinkovic-Savic so special?

World-Class Pedigree

With his father Nikola Milinkovic a former professional footballer and mother Milana Savic a former professional basketball player, Sergej was blessed with a sport gene – together w…

Real Madrid defender Raphael Varane has voiced his admiration for Jose Mourinho and suggested he would not be the same player if it were not for the current Chelsea manager.

The France international,22, joined Real from Lens in 2011 and initially struggled to secure regular first-team football at the Santiago Bernabeu.

However, a training-ground discussion with Mourinho made him realise that he could not afford to take it easy and that he had to give his all if he was to succeed in the Spanish capital.

During my second season at Real Madrid, Jose Mourinho gave me a kick up my arse, Varane told Le Journal du Dimanche.

I was not doing well and I was unable to do the things I wanted to do on the pitch. So he took it up with me. He asked why I wasn t run…

Robert Lewandowski s double and a thumping finish from Kingsley Coman ensured Bayern Munich beat RB Leipzig 3-0 to win the DFB-Pokal and complete a domestic double in Niko Kovac s first season.

Having secured a seventh straight Bundesliga title last time out, Bayern went ahead against a resilient Leipzig featuring in their first ever major final thanks to Lewandowski s wonderful 29th-minute header.

Things would have been different if not for Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, who on his return from injury pulled off a pair of fantastic stops to deny Yussuf Poulsen and Emil Forsberg.

Thiago Alcantara passed up a golden chance to extend the lead, but his miss mattered little as Coman made sure of Bayern s first domestic double in three years before Lewandowski…

Burnley s stuttering start to 2018 has taken another blow with Steven Defour to miss at least two months with a knee injury.

The midfielder will undergo surgery to repair cartilage damage, robbing Sean Dyche of a key figure in the Clarets  impressive season to date.

Defour started all 24 of his side s Premier League fixtures prior to the injury, scoring once in the 2-2 draw with Manchester United on Boxing Day.

The setback also clouds the 29-year-old s chances of appearing for Belgium at this year s World Cup in Russia.

He was a member of the squad that reached the quarter-finals in 2014 and has won 52 caps for the Red Devils.

BREAKING: Sean Dyche confirms will miss at least two months following knee surgery. Read:

— Burnley FC…

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The international break has come to an end and in its place, we have the return of European football across the continent and that includes Serie A. The shock of seeing Juventus lose their crown last season really has opened things up in the title race and even though we re just a few weeks into the new campaign, it already seems as if we re in for a wild one and that trend is likely to continue when reigning champions Inter Milan take on Sampdoria this weekend.

Sampdoria

From European contenders to mid-table fodder it s safe to say Sampdoria fans have been at something of a stalemate in the last few years. They haven t known whether they re coming or going and that s the sort of unpredictability as…

Achraf Hakimi dreams of wearing the white shirt of Real Madrid again one day, according to Antonio Conte.

Conte coached Hakimi at Inter Milan last season after the Nerazzurri bought him off from Real for a fee believed to have stood at around €40 million. Together they won the Serie A title before Conte left the club at the end of the campaign and Hakimi moved on to Paris Saint-Germain in the summer transfer window, for close to €70m.

As relayed by , Conte recently spoke to Sky in Italy about the Algerian right-back.

Psychologically, Hakimi suffered a little bit from last year s games against Real Madrid, the Italian tactician said.

His dream is to play for that club again as a key player.

Hakimi spent two extremely successful seasons on…

Gabriel Martinelli and Emile Smith Rowe struck in the second half to earn Arsenal a 2-0 win over West Ham at the Emirates Stadium to move the Gunners into the Premier League s top four.

Following a keenly contested first half in which Kieran Tierney struck the bar, Martinelli raced into the box in the 48th minute to slot a classy finish into the bottom corner.

The Gunners continued to assert their dominance in the second half as Alexandre Lacazette won a penalty, with Vladimir Coufal receiving a second yellow and a red for the challenge, but the France international s spot-kick was saved by former Arsenal goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski.

However, substitute Smith Rowe lashed home late on to secure an important result that sees Arsenal leapfrog the Hammers into fo…