Manchester City remain confident that they will be adding Kyle Walker, Benjamin Mendy and Ryan Betrand to their squad before the start of the season but have been left furious with Dani Alves’s decision to join Paris Saint Germain.
City have been courting Alves for weeks and believed they had an agreement in principle with the Brazilian star, after he agreed to terminate his Juventus contract early.
However, instead of heading to Manchester – the 34-year-old is instead moving to Paris for the next leg of his glittering career.
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Whilst annoyed, City sources insist the club remain calm and they will push on with their plans to sign their other top targets Ryan Bertrand, Kyle Walker and Benjamin Mendy.
Walker is now their top target and City are continuing talks. but as yet they are not close to striking a deal but they are hopeful of progressing it this week.
City have told Spurs they would be open to letting players move in the opposite direction and one player that has come to Tottenham’s attention is Kelechi Iheanacho – who is the subject of a bid from Leicester City – but Man City would be happy to let him go to North London as part of the Walker deal if it helped smooth the deal over.
Walker has already made it known to Spurs that he would like the chance to move to The Etihad.
City are also hopeful that talks with Monaco over Benjamin Mendy will soon be finalised and that is the minimum that Pep Guardiola wants – he wanted four full-backs too for each position.
Southampton’s Ryan Bertrand also remains high on their list, but they had prioritised the Mendy deal – but they are confident they can land both players before the start of the season.
Bookmakers remain confident that City will land Bertrand, Walker and Mendy and Ladbrokes make them 6/4 to be at The Etihad.
Ladbrokes’ Richard Marsh told us: “As far as pep Guardiola and Man City full-backs are concerned this summer, it’s a revolving door. Out go Clichy, Zabalete and Sagna, and in come Mendy, Bertrand and Walker.”