From France: Manchester City rebuff €30M offer for first-team defender | OneFootball

Nottingham Forest have seen an offer worth €30 million rejected for one of Pep Guardiola’s first-team stars, as per a new report from France.

Guardiola has sent a plea to the Manchester City board to engineer a number of departures before the English transfer window ends on September 1, with six new arrivals this summer bloating up the squad ahead of this weekend’s Premier League opener against Wolves.

Kevin De Bruyne, Scott Carson and Kyle Walker have all been let go this summer, with newly-appointed director of football Hugo Viana wasting no time in orchestrating a much-needed revamp of Guardiola’s squad after a disappointing 2024-25 campaign.

Jack Grealish completed a season-long loan move to Everton on Tuesday as Manchester City finalise negotiations with Nottingham Forest for James McAtee, who is set to bid farewell to his boyhood club after captaining the England U-21s to European Championship glory earlier in the summer.

City have signed Rayan Ait-Nouri, Marcus Bettinelli, Tijjani Reijnders, Rayan Cherki, Sverre Nypan and James Trafford already in this window, with negotiations ongoing with Paris Saint-Germain goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, who has agreed personal terms over a move to the Etihad Stadium should Ederson leave this summer.

After a 3-0 pre-season win over Palermo at the weekend, Manchester City face Wolves in their 2025-26 Premier League curtain-raiser at the Molineux Stadium on Saturday, with tricky tests against Tottenham, Arsenal and Manchester United all awaiting the Blues in their opening five league games.

There remains business to be done between now and the closing of the transfer window, with young first-team stars such as Claudio Echeverri and Nypan expected to leave on loan for the upcoming season. Vitor Reis has already joined Girona for the 2025-26 campaign.

City were understood to have been keen on signing a new right-back to replace Walker but negotiations with Newcastle for first-choice target Valentino Livramento met an impasse owing to the financial demands of the current Carabao Cup holders for their 22-year-old defender.

According to Foot Mercato, Manchester City have turned down an offer worth €30 million for Rico Lewis from Nottingham Forest, who have expressed a desire to add the City academy graduate to their ranks ahead of the new season.

Forest are nearing an agreement with City for McAtee, a deal for whom is highly likely to include a sell-on clause that will be held by the Blues – a strategy that has brought significant financial windfalls at the Etihad Stadium over the years.

Lewis, 20, burst on the scene midway through City’s historic 2022-23 campaign, when he ousted Joao Cancelo from the right-back position and established himself as a key first-team star for Guardiola.

Manchester City are highly unlikely to entertain an approach for Lewis – regardless of the money on offer -who is a poster boy of the academy, alongside Foden, and has established himself as one of England’s best up-and-coming defenders with an ability on the ball that is highly valued by Guardiola.