Pep Guardiola hasn’t been afraid to use youngsters this season, handing 1011 minutes of football to 11 players under the age of 20 (Kayky, Finley burns, Luke Mbete, Romeo Lavia, Cole Palmer, Ben Knight, Josh Wilson-Esbrand, CJ Egan-Riley, James McAtee, Liam Delap and Samuel Edozie), but he’s also looking to the transfer market to future-proof the Manchester City squad.
City recently signed 22-year-old Julian Alvarez from River Plate and have since turned their attentions to 17-year-old Zalán Vancsa, 19-year-old Exequiel Zeballos and 17-year-old Valentin Barco, but Jorge Baravalle of ESPN claims 19-year-old Máximo Perrone is also a transfer target.
He says City have a ‘jewel of Argentina’ on their wishlist after he impressed scouts. Perrone, who plays for Velez Sarsfield and has a release clause of $10m (£7.4m), could be on his way out in the near future now City have made their intentions clear.
If the central midfielder believes Guardiola has his best interests at heart, he may be lured away from Velez. The prospect of playing alongside Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva might be too good to turn down, so Velez may be fighting a losing battle trying to keep him.
No official approach has been made yet, but City are interested.
In other news, Man City consider move for £58.6m man with 61 goals if Erling Haaland pursuit fails