'My dream' - Rico Lewis sends Man City transfer message amid Nottingham Forest talks

Nottingham Forest want to sign Rico Lewis from Manchester City but the academy graduate was in the team

Rico Lewis wants to stay at Manchester City despite interest from Nottingham Forest

Rico Lewis wants to stay at Manchester City this summer despite interest from Nottingham Forest and said he could never see himself playing for another club.

Forest are keen to sign the 20-year-old, having also wrapped up a deal for James McAtee. With City desperate to offload players to trim a squad that Pep Guardiola believes is far too big, Lewis' future at the Etihad has been thrown into doubt.

Lewis has been with his boyhood club for 12 years but despite talks over the summer, has yet to sign a contract extension. He has seen his status as a first-team player improve since the last deal he penned two years ago.

Along with City's desire to sell players, that has opened the door to Lewis leaving, but having been picked ahead of Matheus Nunes at right-back in the opening day rout at Wolves, he said he had no intention of going before the transfer window closes in a couple of weeks.

"For me, I've never, ever seen myself at a different club," Lewis said. "I've always wanted to play for City. It's my dream club, and like you see today, when I'm playing with the kind of players that I'm playing with, it brings out the best in me, so I'm so happy."

Lewis made 44 appearances for the Blues last season and is closing in on a century of games, but he struggled for form at times last term, and many thought he had fallen below Nunes in the pecking order for the vacant right-back slot.

As a result, he felt like a surprise inclusion at Molineux but he registered an assist for Erling Haaland's opening goal and produced an excellent performance that reminded Guardiola and director of football Hugo Viana of his qualities.

Lewis has spoken to Guardiola about his future and said that although he wanted to play more often, having only started nine games after the turn of the year last season, he accepts the responsibility to prove he deserves a place in the team is on him.

"It's difficult. Everyone wants assurance and security, but at the end of the day, it's on me," he said. "It's on me to perform. It's on me to take the chances. If I take my own chances, I do it. If I don't, then I have to work and get better.

"Last season I played more than the season before, this season I want to play more than last season, so it's always the same goal, becoming an established player."

This season is already a new experience for Lewis, as the first in which he is a hunter rather than the hunted. For the first time since he established himself as a first-team regular, City don't have a title to defend.

Instead, they are trying to reclaim the crown they had won for four seasons in a row before stuttering last term and seeing Liverpool win the prize.

Lewis is "100%" convinced they have the quality and depth to win the Premier League and compete on all fronts and said there was a determination in the squad to retake their title.

"Definitely, there's always hunger, but I think there could be additional hunger now that it's not our crown to defend," he said. "There's something that we're chasing, but at the end of the day, it's a new season and everyone's chasing the same thing.

Obviously we've got new staff, new players, but that happens every season. I think the amount it happens is different, but I think the club's so good at integrating people in and out that it's seamless.

"I think we, as much as we can, forget about last season but obviously it's in the back of our minds and we could say it's fueling the fire for us, but we're so focused on this season, we've already had the Club World Cup so we feel much stronger, together as a team, and I think that’s the main thing, we feel like a unit."