Aleksandar Kolarov close to leaving Manchester City for Roma

Manchester-City's-Aleksandar-Kolarov-celebrates-scoring.-(Adam-Davy/AP)

Manchester City's Aleksandar Kolarov celebrates scoring. (Adam Davy/AP)

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola says left back Aleksandar Kolarov is close to joining Roma.

Guardiola says Kolarov told him he wants to leave and return to the Italian capital, where he played for Lazio from 2007-10.

Speaking after City’s 2-0 loss to Manchester United in a preseason friendly in Houston on Thursday, Guardiola said "I don’t like to work with people who don’t want to stay."

Kolarov’s imminent exit increases City’s need for reinforcements at full back. The English team released Bacary Sagna, Pablo Zabaleta and Gael Clichy in the off-season and bought Kyle Walker, who is City’s only other senior full back apart from Kolarov.

[relatedlinks]

When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.