Journalist Andy Brassell has said that RB Leipzig have had to reassess their stance on Josko Gvardiol amid reports of a potential transfer move to Manchester City.
Earlier this week, it was reported that the Citizens are continuing talks with the German club over a possible deal for the defender after their verbal approach of €75m (£68m) plus add-ons was rejected.
Now, one journalist has shared some behind-the-scenes details from Leipzig’s point of view about City’s pursuit of their centre-back.
Journalist says Leipzig know they will have to sell Gvardiol
Speaking on talkSPORT, Brassell said this about Leipzig’s stance on potentially selling Gvardiol to the Manchester club this summer.
He said: “I think in an ideal world, Leipzig would not have sold him this summer.
“Now, I think if you go back a couple of months, I would have predicted they wouldn’t sell him this summer. Particularly in the situation where they’ve already agreed, months ago, the sale of Christopher Nkunku to Chelsea, obviously the buy-out clause for Dominik Szoboszlai was paid by Liverpool as well, so all of a sudden they’re looking at a rebuild.
“The thing was, they were setting a prohibitively high, what they thought was a prohibitively high price for Gvardiol, but it turns out that City are prepared to pay at least most of it, so they came in with quite a high opening offer, not quite enough for Leipzig but it’s put them in a position where they know they’re going to have to sell him this summer.”
As Brassell mentioned, the Bundesliga side have picked up £52m from Chelsea for Nkunku and recently saw Liverpool pay the £60m release clause in Szoboszlai’s contract, which means that should City end up paying around the €100m (£86m) figure that Leipzig apparently want for Gvardiol, this will give them a significant amount of money to spend on replacing those players and strengthening their squad.
In terms of on-the-pitch matters, the Croatian featured in 30 of his current side’s 34 Bundesliga games last season, proving how important he is for them.
Moving forward, if City make an official offer for the 21-year-old defender that is suitable for Leipzig to accept, they should look to get this deal sorted as quickly as possible so they can use the remainder of the transfer window to use they money they’ve picked up from player sales to make sure they have a squad that’s strong enough to have a successful season.
