Manchester City talks to sign player ‘almost closed’ – Deal now described as ‘imminent’

We can safely say that today is Bruno Fernandes to Manchester City Day for the Portuguese media.

Given the claims we’ve covered so far, it’s worth having a recap.

Record’s Friday front page shouted out that City are ‘hunting’ in Lisbon for both Bruno and Joao Felix.

The English club are ‘ready to invest’ in the pair and ‘open the purse strings’ to make sure they beat competition.

Txiki Begiristain is described as being ‘determined’, especially over Bruno, and contact has already been made with people close to the player.

Whilst financing the transfers isn’t thought to be a problem, sales would be required for FFP, with Leroy Sane named as an option.

The same newspaper then explained Manchester City had pushed ahead of their neighbours United, and also PSG, because they’ve initiated transfer talks with Sporting.

A Manchester meeting, as had previously been claimed by A Bola, was denied.

A Bola continue to insist that Sporting director Hugo Viana has travelled to Manchester this week, along with Jorge Mendes.

At O Jogo, they sound quite excited about how close a deal is, and talk things up.

It’s claimed Manchester City talks to sign Fernandes are ‘almost closed’, and that despite United being closer at one point, a deal with Pep Guardiola’s club is ‘imminent’.

They add: ‘The talks have been conducted by the sports directors, in the case Hugo Viana for the Lions, and Txiki Begiristain for the Citizens.’

Fernandes has a €100m release clause, but there has been talk of another clause meaning he could leave for €35m.

O Jogo clear this up: ‘The amounts involved in the operation are not yet defined, but on the table there will be funds above €35m included in the release clause in the contract signed by Bruno Fernandes when he returned to Alvalade after the unilateral termination, alleging just cause, following the invasion of the Academy in Alcochete (training ground) on May 15th – the player then renewed until 2023, one year more than before the termination of employment, and the clause mentioned above can be annulled by means of a compensation of €5m.’

That means if a club offers €35m and it isn’t accepted, Sporting must pay Bruno’s camp €5m… which they would rather do than accepting the lower fee.

Other interested clubs are mentioned by O Jogo, but it’s made clear Manchester City are now out in front.