Guardiola 'warns Man City stars ahead of 2020 summer transfer window'

Pep Guardiola has told his players that their contracts do not guarantee them a place at Manchester City next season.

The Premier League champions are in an unusual position of being out of the title race for the first time in three years, with Liverpool taking advantage of more dropped points from the Blues to move 16 points clear with a game in hand.

City's coach was not happy at the weekend with a basic defending error that cost them a win against Crystal Palace, and after the failure to sign a centre-back last summer reinforcements are needed to improve a squad that has failed to keep up with the league leaders.

Guardiola has maintained that a complete overhaul will not be needed, but as the team searches for new motivation in their remaining games there is more than just the three cup competitions at stake.

Just as the manager believes he will be in trouble if his performances do not meet expectations in the next five months, he will be assessing every member of his squad to see if they have the desired attitude to continue beyond the summer.

"The players, the performance and at the same time my bosses have one eye to see if I deserve to continue here. In the same way, my eyes have to control my players and how their performance deserves to be here. There is no other solution," he said.

"I have an idea of what we need. We speak quite often with the club. There are still four months and it depends on that. We are going to take a decision. Everything is related to the performance, not about the contract we have or what we are.

"We have to take the results – not so much the results, perform your best. For me as a manager being observed and the same for the players. It is what it is here and everywhere."