Manchester City target eye-watering £180 million spend on two new signings BEFORE Club World Cup | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola could welcome two new blockbuster signings into his Manchester City squad at a remarkable cost before the upcoming FIFA Club World Cup.

Hugo Viana is believed to be in the process of plotting out the strategy for City’s summer transfer window in an attempt to get Pep Guardiola’s playing squad back to it’s competitive best potential in time for the new season.

That campaign will follow the first major trophy-less season since Guardiola’s debut year at the Etihad Stadium, after Manchester City’s final opportunity to win silverware was cut short at the weekend via a single goal from Crystal Palace’s Eberechi Eze.

It was also a contest that saw Kevin De Bruyne make his final appearance at Wembley Stadium as a Manchester City player, before the Belgian will leave the club this summer at the end of his contract and on a free transfer.

And much of the club’s priorities and attention before the upcoming summer transfer window will centre around replacing the 33-year-old, with their priority option likely to come at a mammoth cost alongside other areas to attend to within their roster.

According to the information of The Mirror’s Simon Mullock, Manchester City are ready to spend £180 million to sign both Bayer Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz and AC Milan’s Tijjani Reijnders ahead of next month’s FIFA Club World Cup.

The German side are said to be demanding in excess of £100 million for Wirtz, and that expected transfer fee is said to have not discouraged Manchester City, who could also offer James McAtee as a makeweight in a deal.

As for AC Milan, the Italian club are said to have made it clear Manchester City will have to break their £56.3 million transfer record, with Pep Guardiola ‘ideally’ wanting to see some transfer business concluded before the summer’s Club World Cup in the US.

On the subject of the expanded and rebranded global club competition, the report states that Kevin De Bruyne’s participation for Manchester City is ‘looking doubtful’ as the Belgian continues to aim to conclude a deal with a new club.

Manchester City’s current club captain further emphasised the unlikely nature of making any appearance for the club in the United States this summer while speaking to the media after Saturday evening’s FA Cup Final defeat to Crystal Palace.

“I have to take care of myself because if I get injured in the Club World Cup, what am I going to do? Nobody’s going to take care of me at that point,” De Bruyne admitted to reporters. “So there’s a big chance probably I won’t play it.”

The United States-hosted tournament will begin with a group stage campaign that will see Manchester City take on Italy’s Juventus, Morocco’s Wydad AC, and the United Arab Emirates’ Al Ain in three matches in June.