Pep Guardiola given assurances over summer funds if Manchester City miss out on Alexis Sanchez

Pep Guardiola has been given assurances by Manchester City that he will have the funds necessary to complete a summer deal for a top striker if they miss out on Alexis Sanchez.

The Citizens seemed to be favourites for the Arsenal man's signature in the January transfer window, having nearly completed a deal on transfer deadline day last summer.

However, neighbouring rivals Manchester United have leapfrogged them to be in pole position to sign Sanchez in a reported £35m ($48m) transfer.

The Reds are also ready to offer the 29-year-old a £400,000-per-week deal ($549,600) along with a £30m ($41m) sign-on fee as well as huge agent fees.

Meanwhile, according to the Manchester Evening News, City are refusing to pay Arsenal's £35m valuation of Sanchez in addition to his agent fees.

The same report claims that Guardiola is in agreement with the City hierarchy and will instead receive additional funds in the summer to land a forward and strengthen an already dangerous strikeforce.

One of the players the Spaniard admires is Atletico Madrid's Antoine Griezmann who has been a perennial target for United.

With the French forward expected to leave the La Liga club this summer, it is believed that United will abandon their long-standing interest in Griezmann should they land Sanchez.

Barcelona have also shown an interest in the 26-year-old but with the big-money arrival of Philippe Coutinho, there is a possibility that they will not maintain their interest.

City recently suffered their first league defeat this season in a 4-3 away loss to Liverpool on Sunday (14 January). Following the game, Guardiola touched upon Sanchez: "You know my answer about that, he's an Arsenal player. I don't talk about the players who are not in my team now.

"We have the squad we have. I don't know what will happen in this transfer window and you have to finish with the players we have to finish. If you can buy someone because we have four competitions, a lot of games, we are going to try.

"I don't think we are so clever or intelligent to analyse the result to see if you need (to make more signings). What we believe we have to do is (decided) from a long time ago, It doesn't change after that result."