Manchester City’s potential move for Sporting youngster Nuno Mendes has been put on hold until the summer by the Portuguese side.
That’s what Record report today, stating that Sporting have decided to ignore any transfer business until they have secured Champions League football for next season.
They explain that Mendes is one of Sporting’s main assets and Manchester City are one of several big sides in Europe keen on him.
A report from the same newspaper yesterday indicated that they were ‘intensifying’ their efforts to sign him in the summer, while also adding that right-back Pedro Porro could be key to the move.
It’s stated that the ‘exploratory contacts’ City have made have ‘paved the way’ for a deal to happen, but at this point, Sporting’s plan is entirely dependant on what happens on the pitch until May.
In fact, ‘everything has to do with sale and purchases’ has been ‘frozen’ by order of the football structure, who want to shield the squad from external noise and focus on winning the league.
They’re doing this to such an extent that they are even refusing to hold conversations about the matter and will only be willing to do so when Champions League football is a ‘certainty’.
At that point, they can start to plan, and any negotiations with Manchester City for Mendes are likely to include Porro.
He is currently on loan at the Portuguese club and has impressed this season, so much so that he is now an ‘important asset’ for City’s negotiations.
Sporting want to keep him permanently, and his name has already been mentioned in the negotiations for Mendes and will ‘surely be on the table’ when those discussions are restarted.
It would take €8.5m for Sporting to make the deal permanent, but that value could ‘re-negotiated’, presumably to make Mendes cheaper for Manchester City.
