Man City zero in on Kevin De Bruyne replacement 24 hours after transfer bombshell
Kevin De Bruyne will leave Manchester City at the end of the current season and the club have already begun their search for a replacement - with a top target in mind
Manchester City have identified Florian Witrz as the talent to replace Kevin De Bruyne - and the champions are prepared to smash through the £100million barrier to get the Bayer Leverkusen wonder boy. City’s decision not to hand De Bruyne a contract extension was determined by their belief that they can prise Wirtz away from the Bundesliga champions this summer.
New director of football Hugo Viana will be tasked with making the deal happen - and will be armed with enough cash to tempt Leverkusen into selling their prized asset. City met Aston Villa ’s £100million buy-out clause for Jack Grealish almost five years ago when Pep Guardiola made the midfielder his priority signing.
The Blues are prepared to go big again to land 21-year-old Wirtz - and will hand him a huge increase on his current £73,000-a-week wages. Viana takes over from Txiki Begiristain at the end of the season and is expected to hit the ground running after being recruited from Sporting Lisbon.
City are ready to spend whatever it takes to rebuild Guardiola’s squad after committing more than £170million on three new players during the winter transfer window. Wirtz is the No 1 target after the Etihad club decided against handing De Bruyne a new deal so that they could pour as much resource as possible into landing the German international.
Wirtz’s deal in Leverkusen still has two years to run - but the club are desperate to convince him to sign a new contract with both City and Bundesliga rivals Bayern Munich circling.
Leverkusen have proposed a two-year extension until 2028. But Wirtz’s advisers are believed to be pushing for a release clause of £85million to kick in after next year’s World Cup, while Leverkusen want to set the bar at more than £125milion
City believe the club managed by Xabi Alonso would prefer their star player to move away from the Bundesliga. Whether Wirtz would take the risk of leaving Germany at the start of a season which ends with the World Cup could be an issue.
But the fact that he has been identified by Guardiola to replace a midfield playmaker who has become a Premier League legend over the last decade will also be a factor. Wirtz, who has scored 15 goals and made 13 assists this season, is currently sidelined by an ankle injury.
In his absence, Leverkusen have fallen off the pace in the Bundesliga and been knocked out of the Champions by Bayern.And in midweek, they suffered a shock 2-1 defeat in the semi-finals of the German Cup at the hands of third division Arminia Bielefeld.
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