Tottenham duo Dele Alli and Danny Rose targeted by Manchester City in £125m swoop

Manchester City are plotting an ambitious raid on Premier League rivals Tottenham for impressive duo Danny Rose and Dele Alli. Pep Guardiola is eager to sign English talent this summer and has placed Rose and Alli on top of his wishlist ahead of the summer transfer window.

Guardiola is also interested in signing Sunderland goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, who has impressed in for the relegation threatened Black Cats this season, while The Manchester Evening News report that the former Barcelona manager is also a keen of admirer of Jack Wilshere and Kyle Walker.

Both Rose and Alli are being admired by some of the biggest clubs in Europe but Tottenham will be comforted by the fact that the England internationals recently signed five and six-year contracts at White Hart Lane respectively.

Spurs chairman Daniel Levy is known to be a tough negotiator and if Manchester City have serious designs on luring Alli to The Etihad Stadium they will have to pay an astronomical sum. Tottenham sold Gareth Bale to Real Madrid for £85.3m in the summer of 2013 and it is believed that Levy would demand a fee close to that figure for Alli, who joined Spurs from MK Dons for just £5m in 2015.

A deal for Rose would be significantly less expensive, though the talented left-back would still cost around £40m. The 26-year-old has developed into one of the best full-backs in the Premier League under the tutelage of Tottenham boss Pochettino and would fill a problem position for Guardiola, with current Manchester City left-backs Gael Clichy and Aleksandar Kolarov both on the decline and the wrong side of 30.

Rose is more of a priority for Guardiola, who does not necessarily need the talents of Alli when taking into account the embarrassment of attacking riches he already had at his disposal. The Manchester City boss is a huge admirer of England's talented stars but believes the chances of signing the cream of the English crop are slim at best.

"I would like English players because they know the league and that is much better," Guardiola said. "I am really impressed with how many good English players your country has. Tottenham players, the English players are all amazing, City, United, Chelsea players as well.

"I would like to have more English players. But, you have to believe me, they are so expensive. I would like to play with them. When I was Barcelona I had a lot of players (from Spain) at Bayern Munich, I had a lot of players [from German]. But sometimes it is not possible. The market is the market."