Kolarov is ‘one step’ away from completing his move to Roma, confirms Guardiola

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has wished defender Aleksandar Kolarov the best of luck at new club Roma whom he’s about to join.

The 31-year-old left-back is about to end a seven-year association with City after joining the Premier League outfit from Roma’s city rivals Lazio in the summer of 2010.

Kolarov was frequently used by Guardiola in the Spaniard’s first season in charge, but as he’s revealed whilst on pre-season duty, he doesn’t take kindly to those who don’t want to work under him.

“We don’t have another option,” he began, as reported by Goal. “We don’t have full-backs, we try to buy full-backs on the right side, not just Kyle [Walker], because the other three full-backs we didn’t extend the contracts. Kolarov is one step to go to Roma. That’s why we don’t have any other options.

“I don’t like to work with people who don’t want to stay. Kola helped me a lot last season in terms of many, many things. But he had a big chance to go back to Rome where he was before and he spoke to me, the club and asked me to leave.

“I don’t like to stay with players who don’t want to stay. That’s why its the best option for everybody. I wish him all the best because he’s a really nice guy. We had an excellent relationship. I was very pleased to train him and I wish him and his family the best.”

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As mentioned, the left-back featured prominently under Guardiola, in total he played 40 times across four different competitions last season.

In those appearances, switching between his normal full-back role and centre-back, the Serbian international registered one goal and three assists.

However, it’s clear with City heavily pursuing Monaco left-back Benjamin Mendy, that a starting berth under the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach is not guaranteed in the forthcoming campaign.

If he does return to Serie A with Roma, he will have a chance to build on his prior 82 appearances in the Italian top-flight, with all of those coming with Lazio between 2007 and 2010.