Man City: Pep ‘looks to La Masia’ for ‘surprise’ De Bruyne replacement after Musiala rejection

Former Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola is hoping to lure Netherlands international Xavi Simons to Man City next summer, according to reports.

The Citizens didn’t spend too much money in the summer transfer window with Savinho arriving from Troyes for a reported £30m and Ilkay Gundogan rejoining from Barcelona on a free transfer .

But they managed to raise around £100m from the sales of Julian Alvarez, Joao Cancelo, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Sergio Gomez and Tommy Doyle.

Man City are currently facing 115 charges over alleged breaches of the Premier League’s financial fair play rules with the hearing starting today.

But finance expert Stefan Borson insists their lack of spend in the summer transfer market has nothing to do with the independent commission’s investigation into their charges.

“It’s not a PSR-related thing,” Borson told Football Insider .

“I suspect really where we’re getting to, is the quality of the players that they have coming through the academy that they have successfully sold for a number of years between £15 even up to £40million with Cole Palmer.

“I suspect that they now start to believe that those players are now around the sort of level of the players that they can bring in from elsewhere.

“Therefore, the question will always be, why invest in an external player when you’ve got one in-house?

“Maybe give them more time, and of course, the side is clearly still very successful, and Pep likes to play a relatively small squad so I suspect it’s a combination of all of those things.

“I doubt it’s anything to do with the charges or anything of that nature.”

MORE MAN CITY FFP COVERAGE ON F365…
👉 Man City FFP: PL rivals ‘propose alternative penalty’ to ‘insufficient expulsion’ given ‘scale of cheating’
👉 Ten possible punishments for Manchester City and Pep Guardiola after Premier League ‘expulsion’ claims
👉 Five options for Manchester City fans after Premier League expulsion

And now Spanish publication Nacional insists that Guardiola is ‘looking to’ Barcelona’s academy La Masia for a potential replacement for Kevin de Bruyne with the Belgium international linked with a move away from the Etihad Stadium.

In a ‘surprise’ transfer, Guardiola wants to sign Barcelona academy graduate Simons from Paris Saint-Germain with the Man City boss ‘already thinking about a replacement’ for De Bruyne.

And Guardiola sees him as ‘an ideal candidate’ to replace the Belgian with Bayern Munich and Liverpool also understood to be monitoring the Netherlands international.

Simons is currently on loan until the end of the season at RB Leipzig and his return to PSG ‘opens the door to a possible transfer if one of the interested clubs presents an offer attractive enough for both the player and the Parisian team’.

Bayern Munich winger Jamal Musiala is also high up Guardiola’s list of future targets with the Germany international recently ‘rejecting’ a new contract offer from the Bundesliga giants.

The Daily Express insisted that Bayern Munich are ‘seemingly reluctant to meet his wage demands’ in a ‘huge boost’ to Man City’s hopes of signing the 21-year-old.

Harry Kane has seen Musiala’s talent at close quarters after moving to Bayern Munich and he reckons the German can be “really frightening” if he keeps increasing his goal contributions.

Kane told beIN Sports : “He’s an amazing player. I’ve said before that he’s got unbelievable talent. If he keeps adding goals and assists to his game, then he’s going to be a really frightening player. Really happy with him. We’re going to need him for the rest of the season, for sure.”