Barcelona have ‘instantly rejected’ a Manchester City offer of €60m plus €10m in add-ons for one of their star players and have told the Premier League side they’ll need to pay £1bn to land him this summer.
City have signed Tijjani Reijnders, Rayan Air-Nouri, Rayan Cherki, Sverre Nypan and Marcus Bettinelli this summer for a combined £125m so far this summer, and Fabrizio Romano confirmed on Friday that they’ve also reached an agreement with Burnley to re-sign goalkeeper James Trafford.
Romano wrote on X: ‘EXCLUSIVE: Manchester City agree deal to sign James Trafford as new goalkeeper, here we go!
‘Deal in place with Burnley under value of £40m buy back clause. Trafford said yes to Man City as Pep Guardiola wanted him.
‘Newcastle are also informed about Trafford’s decision.’
Romano later added: ‘More on exclusive story on James Trafford joining Manchester City: understand medical tests will take place early next week, main part on Monday.
‘Man City to pay £27m fee to Burnley for the goalkeeper, as revealed.’
The Athletic’s David Ornstein confirmed Trafford is ‘set to re-sign’ for Man City, while Ortega is ‘expected to go’.
Ornstein added:
‘Pep Guardiola’s side have matched a Newcastle offer of £27million ($36.3m) with the player agreeing a five-year deal plus the option of a further 12 months to return to the club he left in June 2023.
‘Current No 1 Ederson has been linked with a departure but claimed last month, that talks of his exit were “fake news” and is now set to stay at the club. The expectation is that Ortega could still leave but nothing is close at the current time.’
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But Guardiola also wants to add a new right-back to his squad to replace Kyle Walker, specifically Barcelona’s Jules Kounde, according to Spanish outlet Nacional.
The report claims City have already made a bit of €60m plus €10m in add-ons for the France international, which was ‘rejected instantly’ by Barcelona as manager Hansi Flick ‘does not even want to hear about the possibility of losing Kounde’.
President Joan Laporta and sporting director Deco are said to have ‘warned’ City and other suitors that ‘the only way Kounde can leave’ is if someone pays his €1bn release clause, making his move to the Etihad ‘unthinkable’.
