This is a preview of what will happen during the following five months: William Carvalho will be linked to Manchester City. A lot.
The Sporting midfielder is well known by the English press due to the many clubs who are said to want him in every transfer window, with West Brom attempting a deal last summer.
But after changing Jorge Mendes for Pep Guardiola’s brother Pere Guardiola last week, the rumour couldn’t be more obvious. At the time, we covered to Portuguese reports and stated that.
It’s usual that when Portuguese news get to England, the Portuguese press will report it again, this time giving credit to someone else. That’s what A Bola did on Monday.
And A Bola do it today as well, just like O Jogo. It’s quite unbelievable, but they do.
Both of them take ‘claims from the British press’ to say Pep Guardiola wants Carvalho, even though we all know the rumours started in Lisbon.
Although Carvalho has been linked to clubs like Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea during the past few years, the official only bids for him came from West Brom, when the Baggies failed to sign him last summer.
With a €45m release clause, the player used to be considered untouchable by Sporting, but the rumours from Portugal have been saying the club are expecting to make some money from him soon.
With West Brom the most interested in recent months, and over the past year, the idea of the Guardiola brothers getting there instead is rather sexier for the Portuguese media than Tony Pulis signing the Euro 2016 winner.
Therefore, any chance to push Manchester City instead of West Brom will be taken.
