Manchester City have advanced their interest in Wolves defender Rayan Ait-Nouri at the start of the transfer window
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Rayan Ait-Nouri and Patrick Dorgu
Rayan Ait-Nouri (Image: Getty Images)
Manchester City are stepping up plans to sign Wolves defender Rayan Ait-Nouri as they plan for next season. The Blues are moving forward with efforts to land the £50m left-back in what could be their first transfer of a summer that is expected to be busy.
Ait-Nouri would become the first left-back signed since Angelino in 2019 if City were to land him. A number of players have filled in the role, with homegrown No.10 Nico O'Reilly the latest after centre-back Josko Gvardiol had made the position his own.
Signing Ait-Nouri would signal City's intent to have specialist full-backs again, with a right-back also expected to be brought in as Kyle Walker is set for the exit door. Nothing has been agreed with Wolves but, as The Athletic report, there is now confidence that a deal for Ait-Nouri will be done.
City are also pursuing moves for midfielders Tijjani Reijnders from AC Milan and Lyon's Rayan Cherki, while there have also been changes in the dugout. Three of Pep Guardiola's assistants have left the club since the end of the season and Jurgen Klopp's former assistant Pep Ljinders has agreed to join the staff.
Speaking last week in his annual address, chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak acknowledged that the club hadn't been aggressive enough in the transfer market last summer. Not only are they looking to rectify that but the plan is to have most of the players signed in time for the Club World Cup, which starts next week.
"When I look back, last summer, we probably should have been more aggressive in some of the changes we needed to do. We didn't do that and that ended up costing us this year. We already started that rebuild of this team in January," he said.
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"Normally we like to do our business in the summer and only in case of emergency, a special need that comes up, do we actually go and do business in January. That's been our MO at least for the last seven or eight years. But this January, we had to act.”
“We feel very good. We feel very good about these players - that's four players in January. And that gives you an idea of what's coming this summer because we will continue this summer with this, serving the needs of the club.
"And I can tell you today, that's, I would say, day one of the new season, we have clearly identified who exactly are the targets, in what positions, and we have our clear number one option, our clear number two option. And we'll go about our business, and it will be very clear, very swift. And our objective is to try to be ready with the new squad for the Club World Cup.”
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