Sportime.Gr claim a scout who works for Manchester City has been in Greece since Sunday.
It’s reported the scout’s first mission was to watch Panathinaikos’ young right back Georgios Vagiannidis.
The 18 year old is currently playing for the Greek club’s U19 side, but Sportime say Vagiannidis could be more suitable for other teams owned by the City Group, not Manchester City.
According to Sportime, the Manchester City scout was then present during the game between Olympiacos and PAOK in the Greek Super League. The attention was reportedly on Olympiacos’ Konstantinos Tsimikas and PAOK’s Dimitrios Giannoulis.
Both players are natural left-backs and that’s an area Pep Guardiola may want to strengthen in January, given the injury to Oleksandr Zinchenko and the inconsistency of Benjamin Mendy.
With Tsimikas there are reports in the Turkish press Fenerbahce are also interested in signing him, but the Super Lig club are unlikely to meet his asking price. Tsimikas has made 19 appearances for Olympiacos this season and is under contract with the Greek club until June 2022.
The other player said to be on City’s agenda, Dimitrios Giannoulis, has a release clause of €8m. The 24 year old has been in impressive form for PAOK this season, making five assists in 16 appearances so far this season.