Sergio Agüero has dismissed talk of a move to Real Madrid, insisting he is happy at Manchester City under new coach Pep Guardiola.

There has been speculation about the striker’s future after Guardiola left him out of the starting line-up for successive matches last month.

However, the Argentinian has since been restored to the starting XI and stressed he is happy at City.

Agüero told ESPN FC Radio: “There’s long been rumours about Real Madrid but the truth is that I’m very happy at City, especially with the arrival of Pep.”

Of Guardiola, Agüero said: “He’s helping me a lot to grow as a player and we speak a lot. I’m happy at City and I hope to finish my contract and return to Independiente.”

Agüero, who joined City in 2011, is currently contracted to the Premier League club until 2019.

Agüero was dropped by Guardiola after he returned from an international break, which saw him miss a penalty as Argentina were beaten 1-0 at home by Paraguay.

Agüero – who then missed a penalty against Everton after coming off the bench – admits he was not in the best frame of mind when he returned from international duty.

“Now I’m happy for how things are currently going for me at the club,” he said. “But after the last game with Argentina, I wasn’t in a great mood because of the defeat, because of the game, for how I played and for the penalty.

“I was down on myself. The first few days afterwards I was very down and to be honest Pep helped me quite a lot. I tried to think positively and fortunately the last few weeks my head has changed enough, I was able to help the team and pick up some points which we were finding quite hard to get.”