Hugo Viana and Manchester City set to hold crunch transfer talks with big-name stars | OneFootball

Some of Manchester City’s biggest names are set to be subjected to transfer talks with club officials over their futures at the Etihad Stadium, according to new reports.

It comes just weeks after Hugo Viana and Manchester City recruitment officials put together an aggressive and successful pursuit of transfer targets to bolster their ranks in time to be integrated into the squad at the FIFA Club World Cup.

Having seen all of their new outfield stars in Rayan Ait-Nouri, Tijjani Reijnders, and Rayan Cherki make their competitive debuts under Pep Guardiola and impress throughout the tournament, an early exit at the hands of Al Hilal in the last-16 is likely to spark more work.

City now return to Manchester this week with the first-team squad granted around four weeks off before resuming training at the City Football Academy at the end of July with a view towards the start of the new Premier League season on Saturday 16 August.

However, it remains to be seen whether all of the names that concluded the tournament in the United States earlier this week will still be a part of Pep Guardiola’s squad roster come the start of the top-flight campaign or the end of the summer transfer window.

According to the information of MailSport’s Jack Gaughan, Manchester City are now set for talks with ‘big-name’ players over the coming weeks, with an awareness within the club that there is a need to offload a ‘significant’ number of players before the end of August.

Pep Guardiola has spoken frequently over the last few months of a need to trim down his Manchester City squad, having felt uncomfortable in leaving out several big names during the final matches of the last season.

Among those facing an uncertain future whilst attracting interest from Turkey in particular is Ilkay Gundogan, despite the German midfielder seeing an initial 12-month contract extended this summer having registered the required number of appearances last season.

Speaking on the veteran during a recent press conference, Guardiola said on Gundogan’s future, “No news, good news. I don’t know anything, I didn’t speak with him, and if he will not be part he would not be here.

“But at the same time, we have a long squad, too many players, we can’t go with 26, 27 players this season because there would be more without playing, and step by step maybe a few players are going to more. But right now, Ilkay is absolutely part of my mind and the team.”

Among the other names that could be subject to transfer conversations and assessment with Manchester City officials in the coming weeks are Ederson and Stefan Ortega Moreno, with a feeling in various quarters that club bosses are eyeing a changing of the guard at some stage.

All of Kyle Walker, James McAtee, Kalvin Phillips, and Jack Grealish are expected to leave the club and Manchester City are open to offers, while there are also uncertainties around John Stones, Nathan Ake, Mateo Kovacic, Abdukodir Khusanov, and Vitor Reis.

The latter pairing would more than likely only be permitted to leave Manchester City on temporary deals, with the central defensive duo held in extremely high-regard by those in the club’s coaching staff structure and boardroom positions.