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Manchester City close in on Rayan Ait-Nouri

Wolverhampton Wanderers have already begun the search to bring in a new left-back in the expectation that Rayan Ait-Nouri will be sold to Manchester City.

A transfer fee is still to be agreed for the Algeria defender but he is wanted by Pep Guardiola.

Wolves had previously valued the 23-year-old at around £50 million and it remains to be seen whether City will go close to matching that price.

However, given the expectation that the transfer will go through it appears both clubs are happy with the negotiations that have taken place so far and Ait-Nouri is keen on the move, which should be agreed in time for the Club World Cup that starts on June 14.

The Premier League transfer window is open between June 1 and June 10 because of that tournament and will then reopen on June 16 until September 1.

Wolves had planned to offer Ait-Nouri a new contract after four impressive seasons in the Premier League, having joined after an initial loan spell from French club, Angers. He has two years left on his current deal.

Angers inserted a 50 per cent sell-on clause which can be bought out by Wolves for a fee of about £9 million. Wolves are likely to trigger that option as a formality before any transfer is completed.

It will be the first time City have signed a specialist left-back since the departure of Joao Cancelo in 2022, on loan to Barcelona and then Bayern Munich before being sold to Saudi club Al-Hilal, and even the Portuguese international had switched from the right side.

Indeed Ait-Nouri is regarded as similar to Cancelo, especially with the attacking threat he provides.

Until now Josko Gvardiol has filled in at left-back although his future lies at centre-half where he is now expected to play for City. Guardiola has also used Nico O’Reilly but, again, it is not his preferred position and his future is likely to be as a No 10.

Interestingly, Guardiola wants to add some Premier League-ready players to his squad during this summer’s extensive overhaul. In January City spent heavily on four players without experience of playing in England and, so far, only one of those, Omar Marmoush, has featured regularly.

City had targeted Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White – and there was even talk of swap deal with Jack Grealish should Forest have qualified for the Champions League – but are now in negotiations to sign the far cheaper Rayan Cherki from Lyon, with the France Under-21 forward valued at £35 million. They have also bid around £50 million for AC Milan’s attacking midfielder Tijjani Reijnders.

In what also looks like a pivotal summer for Wolves they have already sold Matheus Cunha to Manchester United after the £62.5 million release clause in his contract was met.

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