Dani Alves rubbishes ‘sh*t’ claims as Man City close in

Matt Stead

Manchester City look to be closing in on the £5million signing of Dani Alves, despite the Juventus right-back rubbishing “sh*t” reports of him leaving.

Alves has emerged as a serious candidate for Pep Guardiola’s problem situation at right-back, with Bacary Sagna and Pablo Zabaleta both leaving this summer.

That leaves the inexperienced Pablo Maffeo in that position, with Alves and Tottenham’s Kyle Walker identified as leading targets.

Alves is the considerably cheaper option, with the 34-year-old having just one year left on his Juventus contract.

According to The Guardian, among many other outlets, the Brazilian ‘has agreed a contract in principle’ to move to the Etihad Stadium.

Juventus are open to the sale of a player who played a crucial role in their Serie A title victory, as well as their run to the Champions League final.

It is believed that a bid of around £5m would be enough to prise him away from Turin, with City willing to offer Alves a two-year deal. Chelsea are also interested, but look likely to lose that race.

The claims come just hours after Alves rubbished reports of him leaving Italy, which surfaced after Gonzalo Higuain published a video on his social media accounts apparently saying goodbye to his teammate.

The video has since been deleted, but Alves issued a response on Twitter.

He said, in response to one particular story: “Don’t spread sh*t. Higuain sent a video for me in a television programme. Don’t do your job badly, please.”

Miaow.