Manchester City poised to sign Atletico Madrid defender this summer

Man City continues to sure up things at the back but turns their attention to Spain in hopes of securing a deal for defender Jose Gimenez.

The Premier League runners-up have made it publically known that they will be working on the backline during this summer transfer window. As per recent reports, Pep Guardiola wants to fill the centre back role with hopes of signing Atletico Madrid’s Jose Gimenez.

An opening bid of £82 million including add-ons has been put forward to Atletico, who must sell players if they are to make any squad adjustments this summer, this regarding incoming players. La Liga officials have made it clear, top Spanish clubs must sell in order to buy.

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This deal comes as a bit of a surprise as their main CB target was the world-class Kalidou Koulibaly. He and Man City have already agreed on personal terms with the African begging Napoli to handle transfer negotiations swiftly.

As we can easily see, that has not happened at all, with the Italians and the English millions apart on their Koulibaly valuation. However, as shocking as it might seem, dealing with the Naples outfit has always been a difficult transaction.

"Manchester City are considering alternatives to Kalidou Koulibaly because of Napoli’s valuation of about €80m (£73.2m) for the centre-back, with Sevilla’s Diego Carlos and Atlético Madrid’s José Giménez on the radar.City’s valuation of a player who will be 30 next summer is some way short of Napoli’s, reflected in their refusal to pay £80m to Leicester for the then 26-year-old Harry Maguire last summer. (Via: theguardian.com)"

City is not willing to mee the £73.2m asking price due to the Senegal International’s age reaching 30 soon. They hope Napoli will drop the price a lot more. This is where the transfer for Madrid’s Gimenez comes in. The total of £80m would be more sensible to use on a player 25-years-old.

But a deal is far fetched at the moment and far from being announced. He has a release clause of £109.8m (Atletico always adding these insane buy-out clauses). If they cannot secure this deal, they will look to Sevilla’s Diego Carlos.

Manchester City have already added Nathan Ake to the backline and will hope for another one more centre back for competition.