Manchester City are not keen on paying crazy money for the transfer of Bruno Guimaraes, but have some lingering interest in the Newcastle United midfielder, according to Fabrizio Romano as he responded to fans’ questions for The Debrief podcast.
Speaking to Ben Jacobs about a number of transfer topics raised by listeners, Romano explained the latest on Guimaraes’ current situation at St James’ Park, with the Brazil international seemingly not in any kind of advanced discussion with any club about leaving.
Man City do have an interest in Guimaraes, according to Romano, but at the moment it hasn’t gone beyond that, and they haven’t been in contact about signing him, with his £100million release clause possibly being an issue as they don’t want to pay crazy money for the player.
It will be interesting to see how this develops, but one imagines City would do well to bring in a talent like Guimaraes to strengthen their midfield after a few underwhelming signings in that position in recent times, such as Kalvin Phillips, Mateo Kovacic and Matheus Nunes.
Guimaraes transfer: Will the Newcastle star end up at Man City?
Newcastle seem to be in a fairly strong position here, however, as Financial Fair Play surely means no one is going to risk trying to pay £100m for one player.
Romano suggested that City could perhaps try negotiating around that clause, but he stresses that those kinds of talks have not happened yet.
It would be a huge blow for the Magpies to lose such a big name to a major rival, so fans will no doubt be hoping that the 26-year-old ends up staying at St James’ Park and boosting their own hopes of getting back into the top four and challenging for honours next season.
City, meanwhile, may have to look elsewhere, and there could well be other, cheaper midfielders of a similar level out there on the market this summer.
