Man City and Arsenal could be well in the Premier League title race next season. Before then, they could be going head to head in the transfer market.
Manchester City have just been handed an unlikely boost by Mikel Arteta and his Arsenal side, following the Gunners’ emphatic 3-0 win over Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-finals on Tuesday night.
Declan Rice scored two incredible free-kicks and the win means that five Premier League teams qualify for the Champions League next season: “Thanks to the performances of Premier League clubs in all of UEFA’s competitions this season, England is now guaranteed a top-two spot in UEFA’s association club coefficient rankings, which earns a ‘European Performance Spot’,” per the Premier League.
Pep Guardiola will be delighted with the news although his Man City side reside in 6th place of the Premier League table right now, following their 0-0 draw against Man United on Sunday.
Despite the uncertainty ahead for Man City, there are more and more names being linked with summer moves to the Etihad, with one mentioned being AC Milan and Netherlands midfielder Tijjani Reijnders.
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AC Milan expecting Man City bid for Arsenal target Tijjani Reijnders
Man City have been linked with Reijnders throughout the year. Arsenal meanwhile were linked with the 26-year-old before the January transfer window, though at the start of March Reijnders signed a contract extension at the San Siro keeping him at the club until the summer of 2030.
Despite that, Calcio Mercato report that AC Milan ‘are convinced that Manchester City will put a figure between 50 and 60 million euros on the table’ (between £43-52million). Man City have hired Hugo Viana as their next director of football and he, alongside Pep and Txiki Begiristain for the time being, will oversee a busy summer transfer window.
Reijnders could well be one of the several players that Man City sign in the summer. The former AZ Alkmaar midfielder, who has 22 caps for the Netherlands, has scored nine and assisted three more in 30 Serie A games this season.
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Latest on Ilkay Gundogan’s future as Man City eye Tijjani Reijnders
Ilkay Gundogan remains out of contract in the summer and there’s uncertainty over whether or not he stays, with Pep saying back in March that Gundogan was close to triggering an automatic extension.
The latest on Gundogan came from us at Manchester City News, when we revealed earlier in the year that Gundogan has aspirations to play for Galatasaray in his career but that his immediate future at the Etihad remains unclear.
But by all accounts, Reijnders is a player very much like Gundogan. Per numerous scouting reports online Reijnders is someone who can pick out those killer passes from deep and break opposition lines with his passing, both long and short.
That, and the same reports all rave about his work out of possession too, so it seems like Reijnders could be the perfect man to come into the Man City midfield and fresh it up, with Kevin De Bruyne also leaving Man Citys in the summer.
