Manchester City are reportedly offering a pair of academy graduates in exchange for Bruno Guimaraes as they prepare for the departure of Kevin De Bruyne.
Reports over the weekend claimed De Bruyne had agreed personal terms with Al Ittihad over a move to the Saudi Pro League side this summer, and although those claims have since been refuted by transfer expert Fabrizio Romano, it’s still thought they’re eyeing a replacement, whether the playmaker leaves this summer or not.
High on their list of possible replacements, according to Spanish reports, is Guimaraes, who has been heavily linked with a move away from St James’ Park this summer amid Newcastle concerns that they would fail to comply with Premier League profit and sustainability rules.
Barcelona are interested, as are Paris Saint-Germain, but the Catalans have ruled out a move as they’re unable to meet the Magpies’ £100m asking price for their prized asset.
City also don’t want to spend so much, which is why they are ready to offer Newcastle both Oscar Bobb and James McAtee in exchange.
McAtee spent last season on loan with Sheffield United while Bobb impressed in brief cameos for City, which has led Chelsea to ponder a move for a player they reckon could be another Cole Palmer.
The report claims the inclusion of Bobb and McAtee in the deal would lower the price of Guimaraes to £65m.
Bobb, McAtee and £65m seems like a pretty good deal, but Eddie Howe will not want to lose Guimaraes, who’s been a key part of Newcastle’s success under the English manager.
Newcastle have already sold Elliot Anderson to Nottingham Forest and Yankuba Minteh to Brighton for a combined £65m this summer in a bid to comply with PSR regulations, and Howe insists they must not put themselves in a situation where they have to sell their top young talents ever again, amid reports that they also came close to losing Anthony Gordon to Liverpool.
Howe said: “Anthony needs a bit of a break but by the time he comes back, he’ll be ready to go. He’s such an important player for us. We didn’t want to lose anybody. Why would we want to lose our best players? We fought really hard to make the right decisions but in those last few weeks it was very, very difficult.
“It was a very difficult last couple of weeks of June. There was a lot of uncertainty and we didn’t know what was going to happen. The rules forced us to do things we didn’t want to do. I want to make that clear we didn’t want to sell any of the players we sold. Absolutely not. Why would we want to sell any of our promising young players? Elliot’s someone we’ve invested a lot of time in and it defied the inner feeling we all had associated with the club, it felt wrong.
“In the end it’s been as good as we could have hoped for in terms of us not being hit with a points deduction which was of, course, of paramount importance. But we need to make sure we’re not in that position again.”
