Pep Guardiola eyes swoop for Madrid’s Isco and Bournemouth defender – The Sun
MANCHESTER CITY are lining up a double raid for Real Madrid star Isco and Bournemouth defender Nathan Ake.
Etihad boss Pep Guardiola has already signed £65million midfielder Rodri from Atletico Madrid but still wants to do more business for his Treble-winning English champions.
Real Madrid want to sell Isco, 27, after bringing in Chelsea attacker Eden Hazard for £150m.
But Guardiola is happy to wait until Thursday's deadline to get the Spain international, valued at £60m.
More of a priority is the capture of a centre-half.
The loss of Vincent Kompany is a hammer blow, and with concerns over the fragility of England defender John Stones, Guardiola wants another centre-half.
Guardiola has been an admirer of Dutch former Chelsea central defender Ake, 24, for some time.
Ake, also wanted by Tottenham, partners Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk at the back for Holland.
He would provide competition for Stones, Aymeric Laporte and Nicolas Otamendi, and let Guardiola avoid using Fernandinho as an emergency centre-half.
2City have also signed PSV Edinhoven left-back Angelino and Columbus Crew keeper Zack Steffan this summer.
Guardiola thinks he can get Ake for £40m and that is one of the reasons he pulled out of the running for England defender Harry Maguire, set to move to Manchester United for £85m.
Those two signings would take City's summer spending to £170m.
Guardiola has previously said: “We cannot spend £200m every season. For example, Liverpool spent more than £200m last season and can’t do it again this season, so it’s the same.
“We bought one player [Rodri] this summer and paid the [£5.3m] buy-back clause for Angelino and that is the reality.
“So today clubs cannot spend every single season, spending a lot of money.”
Source: Read Full Article