Manchester City may consider offering Matheus Nunes to Newcastle in a part-exchange offer for Bruno Guimaraes, according to the Daily Mail.
Since joining from Wolves for £53m last year, the Portuguese international has struggled to find a place in City’s starting lineup.
It now appears the Premier League champions are prepared to cut their losses on Nunes if they can bring in Guimaraes as his replacement.
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Manager Pep Guardiola is a big fan of the Brazilian and the Daily Mail claim that the Catalan is the one “insisting” that the club pursue his signature during the January transfer window.
Newcastle are under pressure to sell
Guimaraes has been heavily linked with City (as well as Arsenal and Liverpool) over the past couple of seasons. However, when interested clubs allowed the midfielder’s £100m release clause to expire last June, it was felt that the player’s future had been settled but comments from Magpies boss Eddie Howe about the club’s financial situation have stirred the pot once again. Speaking in his pre-match press conference on Friday afternoon, Howe said:
“Hopefully it’s not going to be players that we’re forced to sell but you can’t guarantee anything. The issue with PSR and our position is that nothing is clear-cut. Nothing is absolutely fixed; there will be lots of twists and turns in January. But we want to try and improve the squad.”
City do have other midfielders on their shortlist
In addition to Guimaraes, the Cityzens have also been linked with the likes of Real Sociedad’s Martin Zubimendi, Atalanta’s Ederson and even Brighton’s Carlos Baleba.
Reinforcing the midfield is on the agenda. There is a lack of energy and dynamism in that area so fixing that issue is deemed a top priority. We shall see if Guimaraes or another player is brought in when the transfer window reopens.
Find out who is in Manchester City’s first-team squad for the 2024/2025 season here