Manchester City’s interest in Sporting midfielder Matheus Nunes is back being highlighted by the Portuguese media, this time in a story from the newspaper A Bola.
Outlet today contains a piece claiming that after Pep Guardiola’s positive comments about the 23-year-old, the Premier League team is actually interested in the signing and is now ‘advancing’ for it.
It is said that Manchester City still have to make a bid for Nunes, but an approach had already been made. Now the English side is thinking of a formula to get the player signed for as little as possible.
The Brazilian, who plays internationally for Portugal, is protected by Sporting with a € 60 million release clause, and the Lions set a minimum price of € 40 million, something the Citizens are already aware of.
Now due to the good relationship and partnership between the two clubs, an alternative is to include players in the deal and get that fee reduced.
The first player who could enter into a deal is, of course, Pedro Porro. Sporting is triggering € 8.5 million. the purchase option they have over him and Manchester City can now reduce that amount from a deal for Nunes.
Then there are two other football players from City Group who could come to Lisbon. One of them is Talles Magno, who now plays for New York City, and the other is Ante Palaversa, who is currently on loan from Manchester City to Kortrijk.
Matheus Nunes has drawn interest from several Premier League clubs, where e.g. Everton, Newcastle United and Wolverhampton Wanderers have all recently been linked with him. The exchange of players is something that can give Manchester City an advantage in this race.