Europa League winners Sevilla are wary that Manchester City may make a bid for defender Diego Carlos this summer.
That’s according to AS, who say there is ‘caution’ at the Spanish club that City will make their move for the Brazilian at some point.
It’s been well established that Pep Guardiola and co are keen to add another centre back to their squad ahead of next season, despite the capture of Nathan Aké from Bournemouth.
At the top of their list is Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly but the Italian side have put a big asking price on the Senegalese defender’s head, and so far, negotiations between the two clubs have failed to find an agreeable price for all parties.
Thus, it has been suggested that Manchester City may look at alternatives and earlier this week it was claimed club director Txiki Begiristain was using his time in Barcelona – where he’s waiting to deal with the Messi situation – to negotiate a deal for Diego Carlos.
AS suggest that may have been a little premature, with them instead stating that they are ‘following in the footsteps’ of the Sevilla defender as opposed to making an effort to sign him.
Instead, Manchester City are said to be ‘testing the player’ and the possibility of making a bid for him. However, it is made clear that they won’t match his €75m release clause.
This is something Sevilla chief Monchi is aware of, and he has a plan in place should it happen, with it claimed he is not ruling out the possibility of a deal.
That would suggest there is room there for City to negotiate with the La Liga club and get Carlos for lower than his asking price, and significantly cheaper than Koulibaly for that matter as well.
First, though, it seems they’ll have to completely give up on signing the Napoli defender first, which seems unlikely to happen any time soon.
