Several players at Manchester City could be playing their final games for the club – ahead of a significant summer.
Kevin De Bruyne has already announced his exit – with the Belgian leaving when his contract expires this summer – while Ilkay Gundogan and Scott Carson also see their deals end, but the pair could yet stay.
There are also several players up for sale. Manchester City are ready to offload Jack Grealish among others – with talk of a £33m move to AC Milan doing the rounds in Italy – and a huge loss is expected to be taken on the £100m required to sign him in August 2021.
There are – however – two players who could be used as bargaining chips in a bid to sign Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen.
Manchester City willing to include Stefan Ortega and James McAtee in Florian Wirtz bid
The Mirror have now revealed that Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen held a meeting at the Etihad Campus earlier this week, with the reigning German champions keen to take James McAtee and Stefan Ortega to the Bundesliga.
It is said that Manchester City are open to offloading the pair of them, but made it clear to Bayer Leverkusen that their talisman Florian Wirtz is a target, with Xabi Alonso aware that he may have to lose the Germany international to land McAtee and Ortega.
The Citizens value the latter at £15m, and the England U21 international at £25m.
Bayern Munich also want Wirtz, although the Mirror interestingly add that Bayer Leverkusen would prefer the attacking midfielder to leave Germany, rather than join their direct rival in the Bundesliga.
The 21-year-old is valued at £100m by Alonso’s side, which means Manchester City could get him for an outlay of £60m, if Bayer Leverkusen meet the aforementioned asking prices for Ortega and McAtee.
Bayer Leverkusen have already bid for James McAtee
The German champions seem very fond of McAtee.
The Mirror add that Bayer Leverkusen have already made a bid for the Manchester City No.87 in January, but did not disclose the value of the offer.
However, the fact they remain keen on McAtee, and the fact he plays in a similar position to Wirtz, suggests Alonso’s side could well be open to this potential player-plus-cash deal, especially with Ortega on the table too.
