The focus for Manchester City in the coming weeks is to trim down the squad, but the club have reportedly just rejected one transfer bid for James McAtee.
Pep Guardiola doesn’t like working with a larger squad as he isn’t a fan of leaving people out.
Currently, Manchester City’s squad is rather bloated, with a total of eight new players having arrived so far this calendar year.
But we are likely to now see some outgoings.
Ederson is set to stay at Manchester City with James Trafford arriving, but Stefan Ortega is now likely to depart.
Jack Grealish is also likely to go, with Everton and others showing interest in a potential loan move.
And one other player who’s also expected to leave is James McAtee, but City won’t be letting him go on the cheap.
Manchester City reject Nottingham Forest transfer bid for James McAtee
McAtee struggled for regular starts last season, and the feeling has long been that he will go this summer.
He has not been short of suitors and recently, McAtee held talks with Eintracht Frankfurt about a potential move to the Bundesliga.
But Premier League clubs like McAtee too, with Nottingham Forest having been linked recently.
According to Fabrizio Romano, Forest have now acted on their interest in the form of a transfer bid.
The bid was worth £25 million, but City have rejected it.
City weren’t thought to have had any bids for McAtee this summer before this one from Forest.
Pete Graves of Sky Sports adds that Forest are ‘pushing’ for McAtee, suggesting a second bid may be incoming. City are open to selling.
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Man City right to reject £25m for McAtee
So that’s the first bid for McAtee turned down by City and the club are right to take that stance.
Given the level of interest, and the notion that McAtee could excel away from City in a similar fashion to Cole Palmer, there is potentially more money in this sale.
Palmer went to Chelsea for £42.5 million.
The likelihood is that no one is paying that much for McAtee, but City could very well squeeze a bit more out of a club than £25 million.
Perhaps £30 million will be the desire, and City will also surely be looking to protect themselves with a potential buy-back or sell-on clause.
