Pep Guardiola says Manchester City are ready to battle with Real Madrid for the services of Monaco forward Kylian Mbappe.

Real were said to be leading the race for the 18-year-old after agreeing to pay Monaco 180million euros, but City are not out of the race and are ready to launch a counterbid to hijack the deal.

City are said to be locked in talks with Monaco regards a deal for Mbappe, and speaking ahead of tonight’s clash against Real Madrid, Guardiola suggested a move could be in the pipeline.

“The player is still at Monaco - still on that team," Guardiola said. “Anything can happen - we are still looking at a lot of other players, but he is still on that team.”

Meanwhile, Guardiola now insists City are in a position to go head-to-head with Real for the world’s best player as the finances are in place to secure such deals.

“Madrid doesn’t have more than Manchester City have,” he said. “Players are very important and we always try to get the best players possible.

“Abu Dhabi came in and invested in the team. Over the past five or six years we climbed to the top and we’re now in the top three or four. In order to get to the level of Madrid or Barcelona we just need time.”