Man City near ‘amazing’ £115m triple transfer blitz as Guardiola gets his wish

Manchester City expect to finalise their first three signings of the summer window over the course of the next couple of days, with Pep Guardiola set to get his wish to sign the trio before the Club World Cup and with two likely departures also named.

The Cityzens suffered a drop-off from their usual high standards this season as Guardiola’s side surprisingly let their grip slip on the Premier League title to finish the season in third, some 13 points adrift of new champions, Liverpool. And with Manchester City also passing up the chance of winning the FA Cup, suffering a 1-0 loss to Crystal Palace in the final at Wembley, it was only the second time since Guardiola’s time in the north-west that he has failed to win a major trophy.

Those who know Guardiola, though, know that he does not like settling for second best. And with the club making big efforts to strengthen their squad this summer, an outstanding triple deal is now understood to be closing in.

First up, City expect to finalise the signing of Tijjani Reijnders from AC Milan, for a fee worth an initial £46.3m (€55m, $63m).

Wolves left-back Rayan Ait-Nouri will soon follow, in a deal worth £36.3m (€43m, $49.1m), while talks are advancing over a deal worth in the region of £30m (€35.6m, $40.6m)  for Lyon forward Rayan Cherki.

And with the deals all expected to be signed and sealed before FIFA’s June 10 deadline ahead of the Club World Cup – City face Moroccan club Wydad AC in their first game in Philadelphia on 18 June – the triple raid has been described as ‘amazing’ by football financial expert Stefan Borson.

“Those fees in the current market look very attractive,” Borson told Football Insider. “If they did get all three of them for £115m, that would be very good business.”

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Borson insists that doubts can sometimes be cast over the quality of any player that costs £30m these days, but insists that, on paper, the three deals all look smart ones from a Man City point of view.

“..But people do have a terrible habit of calling the transfer market before players have even kicked a ball and we’ve seen it multiple times where people say who’s had the best window and then those players turn out to be effectively duds and do nothing.

“So, really you’ve got to see how the players deliver before assessing the quality of the transfers.

“I think that the only thing that you would be concerned about is just that the likelihood of a player in this day and age signed for £30million, the likelihood of them actually being a massive hit is relatively low.

“Those sorts of players at the bigger clubs have generally not really worked, so I would just be slightly hesitant.

“Although on paper, they all look like amazing deals because all the players are top players.”

It won’t be all one-way traffic, however, and City are also working hard at finalising two potential departures early in the summer window. And while neither deal is quite so time sensitive, both James McAtee and Jack Grealish are likely to both move on over the coming weeks.

Grealish is being allowed to leave after falling out of favour with Guardiola and failing to make the squad travelling to the United States.

The 29-year-old still has two years to run on his Etihad deal and City are understood to be keen to allow him to leave on an initial loan if it guaranteed a promise to make permanent next summer.

McAtee, meanwhile, will also be shown the door after failing to convince Guardiola he is worthy of a regular shirt. The 22-year-old – whose sale will go down as pure profit owing to being a homegrown player – has admirers from across the Premier League and Bundesliga.

Man City latest: Cherki transfer timeline; ‘Here we go’ for Reijnders

As for Cherki, the Lyon star is strongly expected to become a City player in the near future with Fabrizio Romano providing an update on the situation. France captain Kylian Mbappe has also praised the 21-year-old.

And with Cherki chosen as the preferred Kevin De Bruyne replacement over Morgan Gibbs-White, the former has now has said yes to joining City, as TEAMtalk revealed on May 29. That has resulted in City opening formal talks with Lyon to try and forge an agreement.

Following France’s clash against Spain, Cherki also confirmed that his move to City is advancing.

As for Reijnders, he is seen as the perfect upgrade for Ilkay Gundogan, who struggled to have the same impact on the side having returned to the club from Barcelona.

Romano has already given that deal the ‘Here we go’ confirmation with the agreement on the cusp.

A look at what Reijdners and Cherki will bring to Man City