Brazil international Wesley has given the green light to complete a move to Man City as the Premier League side prepare an ‘offer’, according to reports.
The Citizens have had a terrible season by their high standards with Man City currently fourth in the Premier League as they enter the final two games of the season.
After winning the Premier League title four seasons in a row, Pep Guardiola’s side are 18 points adrift of champions Liverpool, who won the title at the end of last month.
Man City signed Omar Marmoush, Nico Gonzalez, Abdukodir Khusanov, Vitor Reis and Juma Bah in the January transfer window in attempt to improve their chances this season.
And now they are set to spend again in the summer transfer window with Bayer Leverkusen attacking midfielder Florian Wirtz a confirmed target, while they are apparently closing in on a deal to sign AC Milan standout Tijjani Reijnders.
And now Brazilian publication Coluna do Fla claim that Man City are ‘close to making official a 35 million euro (£29.5m) offer to sign’ Flamengo right-back Wesley.
The Brazil international has ‘become one of the English team’s priorities’ and Wesley has now ‘approved the idea of playing in European football under Pep Guardiola’.
Flamengo, who will compete in the Club World Cup in the summer like Man City, are ‘still evaluating the deal’ and they have ‘set a minimum value of 45 million euros (£34m) to release the youngster’ before the tournament.
Premier League sides Man Utd and Arsenal are ‘also monitoring the full-back and have made inquiries, but have not yet submitted formal offers’.
The report concludes that ‘despite interest from other European giants, none of the teams have made as much progress as City’.
When asked at a pre-match press conference if signing Bayer Leverkusen attacking midfielder Wirtz would be the perfect start to summer recruitment, Guardiola said on Friday: “This is not the time to talk about that. Before the final of the FA Cup, I have 24 exceptional players. I am not going to talk one second about the future.”
Guardiola was also previewing their FA Cup final clash against Crystal Palace with the game representing Man City’s final chance of silverware in the domestic season.
When asked if he learns more from a final loss or a final win after winning and losing the FA Cup final in the past two seasons, Guardiola added: “First of all I want to thank the fans for wanting to come and support us. Winning is much better than losing. But you learn from the losing, last season was special because three or four days before we won the Premier League for the fourth time in a row so maybe our mindset was not perfect.
“The team didn’t have bad play, some decisions went against us. We lost it, in finals it happens. It was important we were there and again one year later we are there again.”
On Crystal Palace, Guardiola continued: “They are a threat because they have quality. [Jean-Philippe] Mateta is strong and the quality in [Eberechi] Eze is obvious and of course the pace from [Ismaila] Sarr.
“Sarr against Aston Villa in the semi-finals they punished them a lot, incredible pace. But not just him, Munoz, [Adam] Wharton is really good holding midfielder who links well inside. They are well structured defensively and their set pieces is one of the best in the Premier League. It’s a final. If we play against Palace or Aston Villa it would be the same. It’s a final, we cannot expect anything different.”