- Manchester City have made an approach for a highly-rated central midfielder
- City boss Pep Guardiola is eager for his team to strengthen further
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Manchester City have made an approach to land Porto’s Nico Gonzalez as they look to end the window with a new central midfielder.
City are understood to have made contact with their Portuguese counterparts and are in negotiations over a fee.
Gonzalez, a 23-year-old who came through the Barcelona academy, has scored seven goals and recorded six assists in 29 appearances so far this season.
The Spain Under-21 international is capable of playing a range of positions in midfield, a key area City are looking to bolster in the absence of Rodri.
Gonzalez, represented by super agent Jorge Mendes, has a release clause of around £50million but City are working to strike a deal lower.
Atalanta’s Ederson has been of interest yet the Italians are loathed to sell their prized asset mid-season, while Douglas Luiz at Juventus is available.
Opening negotiations with Porto signifies that City are not yet done in the window and want to hit the four new faces to re-energise their campaign, a plan revealed by Mail Sport last month.
Omar Marmoush, Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis have already joined the Premier League champions in recent weeks and a further signing would take City’s spend over £150m.
Manager Pep Guardiola accepts that landing a specific understudy to Rodri of requisite quality is a difficult assignment and City have looked at midfielders able to fill multiple positions.
Guardiola said on Friday that the club’s positive net spend over the past five years has allowed them to release the purse strings now and promised a further overhaul of the squad in the summer.
