Towards the end of last month, Sport stated Manchester City will ‘enter into negotiations’ with Barcelona over a deal for Alejandro Balde next summer.
The left-back is managed by Jorge Mendes and it was also stated the super-agent would be open to facilitating his client’s exit, to help the La Liga side improve their finances.
A ‘confidential’ report from today’s Sport says Manchester City ‘thought about Balde’.
The Spain international has been a regular for Xavi Hernández’s side this season and his form has seen him attract interest from the Premier League.
Sport state Manchester City had their eyes on Balde, but their chase has ‘stopped completely’.
Manchester City’s João Cancelo has been on loan at Barca since last summer and the La Liga side are keen on retaining him beyond this season.
The Citizens had initially thought of including him as part of the deal for Balde, but Sport now claim they are ‘not going to bid’ for the latter and only want cash for Cancelo.
It’s not made clear why Manchester City have decided to end their interest in the Barca player.
In reality, there’s a reasonable chance the interest never existed and it was just the Catalan media dreaming up ways Barcelona can buy Cancelo in the summer.
