Pep Guardiola
could take his summer spending past £100 million as the
Manchester City
manager closes in on Leroy Sané and the young South American forwards
Gabriel Jesus
and Marlos Moreno.
Schalke want £41.8 million (€50 million) for the Germany attacking midfielder Sané, with City, who are confident of the deal going through, valuing the 20-year-old at around £5 million less. If the clubs split the difference Sané would cost £39.3 million, taking Guardiola’s outlay to £75.8 million.
Jesus, a 19-year-old Palmeiras striker, is valued at around £26 million (€31 million) by the Brazilian club. They rejected a €20 million bid from Juventus, which is closer to the fee City believe he is worth.
Atlético Nacional’s Moreno, a 19-year-old Colombian forward, has agreed to move to City for a fee in the region of £8 million (€9.5 million). This would take their total spending to around £103.8 million.
Guardiola has already bought Ilkay Gündogan for £21 million (€25 million), Nolito for £13.8 million (€16.5 million)and Oleksandr Zinchenko for £1.7 million (€2 million).
Overweight
Gaël Clichy has highlighted Guardiola’s intense drive for perfection by revealing pizza has been banned and players are not allowed to train normally if overweight. The left-back said Guardiola has already excluded some of his squad, with those players thought to be on individual conditioning programmes.
“On the field, outside the field, every detail counts,” Clichy said. “For example, you often hear managers say being healthy is really important. With him, if your weight is too high, you’re not training with the team. That is the first thing and you can hear it a lot but for my part it’s the first time any manager has really done it.”
Guardiola has been clear about the squad’s diet. “He cut out some juice and pizza and all the heavy food is not allowed,” Clichy said. “Some people think: ‘That’s normal, it should be like this.’ But in truth it’s not always like this. It’s really refreshing and very exciting.”
The 31-year-old believes Guardiola is a coach who can help players in all positions. The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager wants his goalkeeper to be an accomplished ball player, which means Joe Hart's position may come under threat.
Clichy said: “He’s an ideal manager for any kind of player. The goalkeeper needs to be better with their feet, the centre backs are improving, the full backs are important, the centre midfield – he said something like if he could play 11 midfielders, he would play them, so I guess for a midfielder it’s unbelievable.
Impressive
“And the strikers are going to score a lot of goals because we are going to create a lot of chances. I can even tell you the assistant manager will improve so he’s the kind of guy that, if you’re lucky to work with him during your career, he is someone you will remember for a long time because he’s truly impressive.”
Clichy played for Arsène Wenger at Arsenal and said Guardiola has revolutionised the game like the Frenchman did when he came to English football in 1996. “There is a lot of similarities between the two but also so much difference. Guardiola has won pretty much everything and he’s changed the way we see football.
“He was probably one of the first to bring the full backs really high, to put a midfield player as a centre back. It’s a step forward. Wenger, years ago, brought something into English football and kind of changed the way people see football. I guess the two of them are just great managers but you could say the same for Ferguson and Mourinho.
“Every manager has their philosophy and for sure he’s coming with his own ideas and it’s quite refreshing for us.” Guardian Service
