Monday 5 August 2019 11:40, UK
Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan has hinted that he is close to signing a new contract at the Etihad Stadium.
The 28-year-old German has one season remaining on his current deal after agreeing a four-year stay when arriving from Borussia Dortmund in 2016.
Talks over a new deal came to a halt back in March when Gundogan admitted he was considering running down his contract to embark on a new challenge.
Since then, the Germany international has featured in City's pre-season friendlies versus Wolves and West Ham in the Asia Cup, as well as their victories against Kitchee SC and Yokohama F. Marinos during Pep Guardiola's side's tour of Japan.
"If you stay patient for another couple of weeks, you will know. We will see," said Gundogan when asked his future following City's Community Shield penalty shootout win over Liverpool at Wembley on Sunday.
"Every situation is different and individual. Everyone has to take a decision for himself. These kinds of decisions sometimes take a little bit of time.
"During last season, I asked people to be patient because it's a decision you make for the next few years. That's why I was calm and relaxed and still am. It's a comfortable situation for me at the moment."
Gundogan, who scored the opening penalty in City's 5-4 shootout victory, came on as a 61st-minute replacement for David Silva, helping the domestic treble winners to their sixth Community Shield.
Reflecting on City's first honour of 2019/20, he added: "It was a good start. It is always a good feeling to go into the first official game and win it, and win a trophy, so we are obviously very happy about the result.
"It was a tough opponent, the toughest it is possible to get, so we will take that."
"I definitely expect the level will not drop. I think it will increase over the next few weeks.
"We are not through our preparations so both teams are not 100 per cent, but the game really showed it's tight, that both teams have a lot of quality and if both teams are going to improve it will be even more work to follow us two.
"But I think there will be a couple more contenders, at least, for top spot in the Premier League so it should be an exciting season."
Meanwhile, Sky Sports News understands that City are close to completing a deal that will see Juventus right-back Joao Cancelo move to the Etihad, with Danilo heading in the opposite direction.
Pep Guardiola also revealed in his post-match news conference after City's victory against Liverpool that the club "could not afford" to sign new £80m Manchester United arrival Harry Maguire.
It's Transfer Deadline Day for the Premier League and Championship on Thursday, August 8 and Sky Sports will be bringing you all the latest news on who your club is signing.
Start your day with Deadline Day Breakfast (6am) ahead of a special Good Morning Transfers show (9am), with Deadline Day - The Countdown (4pm) taking you to the 5pm deadline.
The Transfer Show - Deadline Day at 6pm will analyse the big moves before Deadline Day at Ten rounds up all the transfer headlines.
