Manchester City set to bolster defensive options as deal agreed for Brazilian teenager | OneFootball

Manchester City are closing in on the signing of Vitor Reis after agreeing a £29.4m fee for the Brazilian defender.

The 18-year-old could form part of a January defensive revamp of City’s squad, with City also hoping to sign Uzbekistan international Abdukodir Khusanov from Lens.

The 20-year-old Khusanov is likely to cost around £33m, with City set to spend more than £60m bringing in two young defenders.

Reis broke into the Palmeiras team last year and the Brazilian club’s president, Luis Pereira, has revealed that City have made an offer for the teenager.

City could lose the veteran Kyle Walker this month after he was omitted from the squad for Saturday’s 8-0 win over Salford City as he wanted to explore the possibility of joining a foreign club.

And manager Pep Guardiola has admitted he perhaps should have started to rebuild his squad last summer, saying on Monday: “In the summertime, the club thought about doing it, and I said: ‘No, I don’t want to make any signings. I rely on the team and I want to stay with them.’ Just Savinho came – and Gundo [Ilkay Gundogan] back [which] I wasn’t expecting.

“We knew at the beginning of the season that the team, in a question of time, would have 10, 11 players more than 30 years old. But the same team that are more than 30 years old, five or six months ago, won a fourth Premier League in a row.

“We knew that sooner or later we should have done it but what happened wasn’t expected. The best way to do it is gradually but after the injuries - wow - maybe we should have done it.”