Pep Guardiola wants both John Stones and Aymeric Laporte at Manchester City

Incoming Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola reportedly wants to sign John Stones and Aymeric Laporte to bolster his backline.

It has already been confirmed that Guardiola will be taking over from Manuel Pellegrini at the end of the season and as a result there has been plenty of speculation about who he’s going to bring in.

According to a report from the Independent Guardiola thinks that centre-back is the priority for him because of the way he likes his teams to play out from the back.

Stones could cost around £50 million according to the report whilst if any side wants to sign Laporte from Athletic they will have to hit his release clause of £39 million.

Also included in the report is that the club are closing to sealing the signing of Ilkay Gundogan from Borussia Dortmund whilst Guardiola is also keen to sign a goalkeeper, another midfielder, a versatile winger and a backup forward.

At the moment City are in a fight to make sure they qualify for the top four, rather than battling for the title, and Guardiola certainly is going to have a tough task on his hands to get the club back up to the top of the table.

However he will have a pretty big budget and should be able to build the squad that he wants.