After all the rumours surrounding Gelson Martins over the past few months, it was only a matter of time until Manchester City’s name was thrown into the mix.
Pep Guardiola’s interest was originally published by the Sunday Express, but it obviously didn’t take long to get to Portugal.
Record has a big article about it today, showing all the competition what Manchester City will have to sign the 21-year-old.
The race reportedly includes Manchester United, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid… for now.
Martins is currently in process of renewing his contract at the Portuguese club. He has the worst salary of the squad, and according to Record, Sporting are offering him €500k net per season. His release clause should go from €60m to €80m.
Despite all this battle described by the Portuguese press, we’re still to see stories saying that something more than a scouting mission was made. No contacts, from any clubs, have been reported so far.
It’s worth mentioning that A Bola had a report today saying that Arsenal have watched the player this weekend as well. The newspaper also claimed that Sporting are planning to raise his release clause to €100m, not the original €80m aim.
The Portuguese media get excited by the thought of Guardiola being interested in signing a Portugal based player for Manchester City. Any remote link is jumped upon and treasured. Therefore, it would be no surprise to see Manchester City interest in Gelson Martins reported as fact, repeatedly.
