Aston Villa reportedly feel confident that they can sign one of Manchester City’s transfer targets this summer.
During the previous January transfer window, the Midlands club signed Morgan Rogers, who had spent almost four years in City’s youth ranks, from Middlesbrough.
The two top-flight clubs also have track records when it comes to signing players from fellow English sides.
For example, Villa have seen the likes of Lucas Digne, Emi Martinez and Youri Tielemans join the club in recent years.
From City’s point of view, they have landed deals for players such as Mateo Kovacic, Matheus Nunes and former Villa captain Jack Grealish.
Now though, with the next summer transfer window approaching, some behind-the-scenes details have come to light regarding another top-flight player who has spent some time in the youth system at City, who Villa and the Manchester club have their eyes on signing.
Villa confident of signing Man City target Michael Olise
According to a recent report from Football Transfers, Villa are confident that they can convince Crystal Palace winger, Michael Olise, to join Unai Emery’s side this season as they can offer him Champions League football and regular game time.
Back in February, it was reported that City have the winger, whom Palace have reportedly put a £60m price tag on, as a top target for the summer window.
More recently, a report from The Athletic claimed that numerous clubs are likely to be drawn to the Frenchman as he has a release clause in his contract at Palace.
This report then suggested that Manchester United could be one of the interested clubs, although Olise would apparently prefer to join City instead.
Olise has already been on the books at Man City
Back in 2016, the 22-year-old spent a year in City’s youth ranks before joining Reading, who Palace signed him from in the 2021 summer transfer window.
Since then, the Frenchman has made 88 appearances for the South London club across all competitions, scoring 15 goals and delivering 23 assists along the way.
Looking ahead to the upcoming summer transfer window, if City feel that Olise would be a useful addition to Pep Guardiola’s squad, they may have to work quickly if they want to convince the winger that he’d be better off at the Etihad Stadium rather than Villa Park.
