Deal now ‘progressing’ over Manchester City’s first big-money signing of the summer transfer window | OneFootball

Manchester City are seeing a deal ‘progressing’ for one of their ‘priority targets’ this summer as a reset of their first-team squad is being worked upon behind-the-scenes.

The Etihad Stadium’s recruitment team is currently undergoing a transitional process as they move from one sporting director to another for the first time in over 12 seasons, with Txiki Begiristain vacating his position.

The former Barcelona player and then director announced his exit from Manchester City last Autumn, and played a role in selecting his successor with Sporting CP’s Hugo Viana coming into the club last month on a full-time basis ahead of taking on the role this summer.

The pair are expected to work hand-in-hand as they formulate Manchester City’s next steps in terms of squad planning, and have already been reliably linked with a number of high-profile names from across Europe in a multitude of positions.

With Kevin De Bruyne ending his 10-year stay at the Etihad Stadium this summer having not been offered a new contract, there is a common belief that City will turn attentions to Bayer Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz as a direct replacement.

But elsewhere, and according to the information of iPaper’s Mark Douglas, Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White is among the ‘priority targets’ identified by Manchester City’s incoming sporting director Hugo Viana and a deal is ‘progressing’.

It is further reaffirmed that City want Bayer Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz and plan to offset the costs of recruitment by making ‘senior stars’ available this summer, thus avoiding pressure on their position with regard to the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules.

One factor that may benefit Manchester City in their hopes of signing Gibbs-White this summer is the Englishman’s personal links to Phil Foden and the immediate family of last season’s Premier League Player of the Season.

Speaking in May 2023, Gibbs-White spoke of his personal relationship to Foden as he said, “I’m godparent to his kids. They’ve got two beautiful, funny kids. We just had a good connection.

“I met him at 16, we just got on. Our girlfriends are close. We roomed together quite a bit. He’s always been a nice kid. Unbelievable player.

“He’d play Fortnite until one or two o’clock in the morning every night! Every night. I’d say that if he scored tomorrow then he could stay on it for another couple of hours.”

For now, it remains to be seen just how much Manchester City would be willing to spend in order to finance a move for the midfielder, particularly given the requirement to strengthen various parts of Pep Guardiola’s squad this summer.