£86m Man City transfer is ‘agreed’ after ‘messy leak’ tempted Liverpool, Man Utd ‘to steal’ top target
Fabrizio Romano is still insisting that Premier League champions Man City are set to sign Liverpool and Man Utd target Josko Gvardiol from RB Leipzig.
The treble-winners have not done too much business this summer, with Mateo Kovacic their only signing to date.
They have been focused on departures up to now with Ilkay Gundogan and Riyad Mahrez securing themselves moves to Barcelona and Al-Ahli respectively.
But it has been heavily reported over the past month or two that Gvardiol is Pep Guardiola’s main summer target after he shone for Croatia at last year’s World Cup.
Two weeks ago, Romano gave this transfer the “here we go” treatment as an “agreement” had been reached between Man City and Leipzig over a fee of around £86m.
But Sky Sports subsequently refuted Romano’s claims with their own report as just a day later, they revealed that Gvardiol to Man City is ‘not close’.
According to Spanish outlet Fichajes, this gave Man City‘s Premier League rivals hope that they could ‘steal’ Gvardiol.
They claimed that ‘Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea have taken advantage of the situation and have submitted offers’ in an attempt to sign Gvardiol.
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The three Premier League clubs were reportedly ‘ready to fight tooth and nail’ to win the race to acquire Gvardiol, but Man City were still the ‘favourites’ to get him from the Bundesliga outfit.
The usually reliable Romano has been ridiculed over social media in recent days for seemingly missing the mark with his Gvardiol exclusive, but he bullishly provided a fresh update on Wednesday morning.
He has told Caught Offside that a “verbal agreement was in place” before a “leak caused a big problem” between City and Leipzig.
Despite this, “it’s going in the right direction” and he is still “keeping his here we go for Gvardiol to City”.
“Another big saga of the summer has been Josko Gvardiol – as I revealed two weeks ago, a verbal agreement was in place, the medical was booked and then the leak of the story caused a big problem between RB Leipzig and Manchester City,” Romano told Caught Offside.
“This is part of football sometimes, especially with German clubs, but I’m still told the clubs are in active talks to try to complete this deal.
“They want to complete every single detail of this story by the end of the week – it is absolutely on and is advancing.
“It’s going in the right direction and despite the mess of two weeks ago I still keep my ‘here we go’ for Gvardiol to Manchester City, I’m not changing my position on that deal.”
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