One player Manchester City have been heavily linked with in recent weeks is now in the sights of a Champions League giant.
It has been a very quiet summer so far on the incoming front at the Etihad.
The club are yet to make a signing this window, although the announcement of winger Savio from Troyes should soon arrive.
But it is expected that City won’t be doing too much this summer, with Pep fairly pleased with the depth of his squad.
Potentially, incomings may only happen if key players depart.
But one man who has been heavily linked with City in recent weeks is one of the stars of Euro 2024 Dani Olmo, but it looks as though a new suitor has now come to the table.
Atletico Madrid are the new favourites to sign Man City target Dani Olmo
It has been reported by Bild today that Atletico Madrid have now entered the race to sign Olmo, along with City and Barcelona.
Previously, there had been no word on Atletico’s interest.
But Bild make out that they are now actually the favourites to land the 26-year-old.
The suggestion is that Olmo would prefer to join a team that is competing for trophies. He would have better chances of winning titles at other clubs than Atletico, but Olmo is said to like the fact he would be their ‘king transfer’ and ‘new linchpin’.
City are mentioned in the report, and the club are said to be stalling over a move for Olmo as a decision has not yet been made on Kevin De Bruyne. Olmo is seen as a potential successor.
Pep Guardiola is reported to be against having both in his squad at the same time, as he would not want to put one of them on the bench.
Barca want Olmo too but don’t currently have the money to trigger his £51 million release clause – the expiry date of which was recently push back by Leipzig – hence why Atletico are now in pole position.
Olmo slipping away
So Olmo is a target for Atletico and it seems the Spanish club are in pole position to land him at the moment.
City have been linked with Olmo for the past few weeks and it had seemed like there was a good chance of him coming. There might still be.
But Olmo is said to want a return to Spain, and Atletico are obviously a huge club, who can also offer Champions League football.
The suggestion about De Bruyne from Bild is interesting. It may well be that Pep does not want to use Olmo in rotation with the Belgian.
It has also been claimed previously that some City officials have reservations about Olmo’s injury record.
We will see how it goes down, but at the moment Olmo moving to City does not seem as likely as it did a couple of weeks ago.
