Manchester City ready to formulate big offer ‘based on their detailed reports’, keen to get transfer advantage

On October 15th we covered claims from the Catalan media that Manchester City had told Ajax they’re ‘willing to exceed €70m’ to sign Frenkie de Jong.

It came from Mundo Deportivo and was one of a series of reports about the midfielder. The Catalan media have been making endless claims regarding competition to Barcelona’s attempts to sign the youngster, and it’s also been stated Tottenham have already offered a big fee.

The reliability feels shaky and the way the price is rising so quickly, without an awful lot of justification, feels like it’s being encouraged by the Eredivisie club. It wouldn’t be the first time.

Those €70m+ claims quickly made it to the English media and were presented as a fresh story, as often happens, and that’s seen them covered in the Netherlands.

AD newspaper go with a story on Saturday saying Manchester City have €70m reserved for the player, and that offer is ‘based on their detailed reports’ of the player.

Competition from others is mentioned, and Pep Guardiola’s side would be looking to get an advantage.

This feels very much like earlier claims simply twisted a little.