Celtic striker Moussa Dembele is ‘exceptional’ – Pep Guardiola raves about scoring sensation and refuses to rule out making a move

Pep Guardiola has refused to rule out making a move for Moussa Dembele.

The Manchester City boss has been linked with the Celtic scoring sensation, who netted twice against the English Premier League side in the Champions League draw in September.

Guardiola admitted Dembele is just another player in the long line of stars said to be interesting the Etihad manager.

But he did nothing to dismiss the story and even talked up the Parkhead striker.

Guardiola said: “If you read the newspapers in the last six months, since I became a coach at Manchester City, maybe I have had contact with 126 players to buy for Manchester City.

“Dembele is another one.

“Every week I have contact for the next season to change players. Alexis (Sanchez) was the last one.

“But the quality (in Dembele) is there. He is an exceptional player.”

Meanwhile, Sergio Aguero could be set to face Celtic after Guardiola decided to re-think his plans.

The Argentine was set to sit out the Champions League clash with the final group game being a dead rubber but Guardiola may now throw him in to try to limit any rustiness after Aguero picked up a four-match ban for a bad tackle on Chelsea defender David Luiz at the weekend.

Aguero will now be out of action in the Premier League until the New Year’s Eve clash with Liverpool but Guardiola refused to condemn his player for a rash tackle.

“It is a pity what happened in the last minute and of course we are going to accept the ban from the FA,” was his only comment.

Guardiola could change all 11 players from the side which faced Chelsea for the Celtic match and hinted at today’s press conference that Fabian Delph could be in with a chance of being involved after returning to training, saying: “There will be changes tomorrow, definitely. I am so happy to give minutes to people who deserve to play and who did not play in the last games.

“If Sergio is going to play or not, I am going to decide today or tomorrow. I don’t know at the moment.

I like all the players to play. I would like more substitutions, four or five or six, to create a new dynamic. If we play one game a week, I would rotate fewer. Always I did rotate and always I will do it.”

Guardiola is already without Fernandinho, who is banned after picking up a red card in the last Champions League match at Borussia Monchengladbach.

The Brazilian was also red-carded against Chelsea and will now miss the next three domestic games.