At the end of the season, the top clubs begin to vie for the services of Europe’s best players and coaches. English champions Manchester City will also be looking for reinforcements in the players’ market. SOCCERSCORE provides you with possible new city entrants, fixed departures and clarifies all questions about a possible transfer from Leroy Sane.
The Premier League will start the 2019/20 season on 10 August, with some notable additions and withdrawals to the Premier League to be expected beforehand.
Until 8 August, English clubs can process player transfers. At 6 p.m. the summer transfer window in England ends and with it the possibility of purchases, sales and loan transactions.
Many top European clubs are reluctant to share potential new commitments with a wider public in order to avoid jeopardising upcoming transfer transactions. Manchester City, too, is still pretty much covered in terms of possible new summer arrivals at the moment, and it is almost impossible to look into the cards in this respect.
This year, Manchester City had, among other things, the obligation to announce the Japanese Ko Itakura. After signing the contract, Itakura immediately became part of a one-year loan transaction. Manchester City makes very frequent use of this rental player model.
In addition to numerous access points, a large number of city professionals are about to terminate their contracts. Among others, the current contract with Marlos Moreno, Douglas Luiz and Aleix Garcia expires.
Recently, in addition to a large number of talented youngsters, the team of Pep Guardiola has been increasingly associated with well-known and seasoned professionals from Europe’s top leagues. Portuguese players are apparently at the top of Guardiola’s wish list.
According to media reports, the negotiations with Bruno Fernandes are the most advanced. The 24-year-old midfielder from Sporting Lisbon is said to have already given his “okay” for the switch to Skyblues.
The Portuguese national players Raphael Guerreiro, Joao Cancelo and Manchester City have also recently been linked.
Ko Itakura is already a Japanese citizen under contract with the Citizens. Apparently now, with Takefusa Kubo, another young Japanese talent is on the wish list of Manchester City and Pep Guardiola. According to reports from Mundo Deportivo, various top clubs are queuing up at the 18-year-old Kubo.
Despite his contract extension last year, Joao Felix is one of the hottest players on the market today. For the 19-year-old giant talent, Manchester City should be ready to transfer 80 million euros to Lisbon, although it remains to be seen whether this sum corresponds to the ideas of Benfica.
No other topic has received such media attention in recent weeks as a possible change from Leroy Sane to FC Bayern Munich.
As the Guardian recently reported, the Sane deal is said to have failed due to the amount of the offered transfer fee, which FCB CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge denied.
Sane’s teammate Ilkay Gündogan commented on the speculation about the change. Gündogan assumes that the 23-year-old will stay: “I don’t know much, but I know a little something. I’m assuming Leroy will stay for now.”