Man City boss Pep Guardiola has offered Citizens winger Jack Grealish to La Liga side Barcelona for £34m, according to reports.
The Citizens had a poor campaign under Guardiola by their standards with Man City finishing third in the Premier League after securing Champions League football on the final day of the season.
Defeat to Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final last month marked a new low for the season with Guardiola facing a big job to get his side challenging for major honours again next term.
One player who has had little impact on their season is Grealish with the Man City winger – who signed from Aston Villa for £100m in 2021 – falling almost completely out of favour with Guardiola.
The Man City boss has provided him with just 16 starts in all competitions this season and it now looks likely he will move on in the summer.
After signing Marcus Bettinelli, Rayan Ait Nouri, Tijjani Reijnders and Rayan Cherki already this summer, Man City chose to leave Grealish out of their Club World Cup squad.
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Everton have been credited with early interest in the Man City winger – who will command huge wages – and transfer expert Fabrizio Romano gave the Toffees a “35 per cent chance’ of signing Grealish.
Romano said: “Grealish is likely to leave this summer, with Everton as a possible destination, though negotiations are not advanced.
“His high £300,000 weekly wage makes a loan deal likely, with City possibly covering part of it.
“Everton is interested, but no deal is confirmed; I give it a 35% chance. Other clubs like West Ham and Newcastle are also in the race, complicating the transfer.”
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And now reports in Spain have claimed that Guardiola ‘offers’ Grealish to the Man City boss’ former club Barcelona and the ‘asking price is around 40 million euros (£34m)’.
However, Barcelona boss Hansi Flick ‘has been quick to close the door’ on the transfer as he ‘doesn’t see Grealish as the right fit for his project’ and the deal has been ‘immediately ruled out’.
Former Everton chairman Keith Wyness is unsure how Everton would afford a transfer for Grealish unless it was a loan deal with an option to buy.
Wyness told Football Insider’s Inside Track podcast: “I just don’t see how that big financial chasm is going to be filled.
“A loan would be the only potential option I could really see, where City would carry on paying part of his wages and Everton contributing.
“There is a possibility, but I think Everton have got bigger rebuilds to doand I don’t know if they’re to build a team around a 29-year-old like Jack at the moment, so that’s the issue there.
“I’m very fond of Jack as a person and I just love watching him play.
“All the experts, when I was at Villa, when we had him, they’d always tell me, watch the way Jack accepts the ball and he is a yard quicker than everybody else, just on the way he controls the ball and accepts it.
“I don’t know what Moyes would do, he’d need somebody as a striker to be able to service, but certainly Ndiaye and Grealish would be fabulous to have behind the striker, and make them a very attacking team to watch.”