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Kompany and Aguero to stay at City

Pep Guardiola has promised that Vincent Kompany and Sergio Aguero will still be at Manchester City next season.

Aguero scored twice to take his season's tally to 33, the best of his City career, and skipper Kompany was also on target in the 5-0 rout of Watford on Sunday.

The future of both Etihad stalwarts has been in doubt, with Aguero briefly dropped earlier this term for Gabriel Jesus and Kompany enduring another injury-hit campaign.

But City boss Guardiola insisted: "They will be at Manchester next season.

"They have improved a lot. Vincent played eight or nine games in a row and we saw something special with him, so I can imagine when City (last) won the league one of the reasons was Vincent.

"Sergio helped us a lot. But we have to find him a better solution to score goals, not to depend on Sergio."

However, Guardiola refused to comment on the future of City's out-of-contract players, including Yaya Toure, Bacary Sagna, Gael Clichy and Willy Caballero.

MONEY NOT ENOUGH

Guardiola had a long exchange with midfielder Toure after substituting him at Vicarage Road, but would only reveal: "I thanked him for what he has done this season. An outstanding performance."

Guardiola warned that it would take the club "decades" before they can hope to catch European heavyweights like Real Madrid and his old side Barcelona.

"Money is not enough - when Real and Barca want a player, other teams cannot compete," he said.

"To compete with Barca and Real, we need time, we need decades to be there."

"For years, City were not playing in Europe and now we've been there seven years.

"But to achieve the next step, the gap is shorter but it's more difficult - to compete head to head against the big clubs in Europe, Real, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Juventus.

"Atletico Madrid made that step but even they could not win the Champions League, even though they deserved to." - WIRE SERVICES

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