We kick off with the latest on the future of Ousmane Dembele, one of Europe’s “hottest properties”, according to the Daily Mail.
Simon Jones has the story which asserts that representatives of the player have denied any done deal for Rennes’ 18-year old winger with Borussia Dortmund, meaning that City, Barcelona, United and Bayern Munich are all still reportedly in the hunt.
“Dembele is regarded as the brightest prospect in France at the moment and has interest from Manchester City, United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham in England while Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Juventus have also made enquiries,” the story reads.
“City were first alerted to the outstanding French prospect by Patrick Vieira who recommended they look to sign him last year.
“He only made his first-team breakthrough this season and is emerging as one of the hottest transfer targets for the summer
“Dembele has professed his love for the Bundesliga yet says his dream is to play for Barcelona.
“Barca are reputed to have already had a £27m proposal turned down.”
Elsewhere a familiar name to these pages returns, that of Athletic Bilbao defender Aymeric Laporte.
The defender is still top of City’s summer shopping list despite the broken leg he suffered playing for France u21s in March, according to reports in this morning’s Guardian.
Daniel Taylor writes: “Laporte’s chances of playing in the European Championship finals this summer were ended last month because of the injuries he sustained in an under-21 game for France against Scotland, but City are still trying to negotiate a deal for a player who will turn 22 in May.
“It will not be cheap, with Laporte’s release clause reputedly worth £39.6m, but there are so few high-calibre centre-backs on the market this summer there is an acceptance among the more financially powerful clubs that players operating in that position will be more expensive than usual.”
Staying on the continent, German tabloid Bild are reporting that City are still some way short of Borussia Dortmund’s valuation of Ilkay Gundogan.
The German international midfielder is allegedly available for a fee of £19.7m but City’s current offer is said to be £15.8m.
Finally, one to keep an eye on with Tuesday in mind as Cristiano Ronaldo limped out of Real Madrid’s 3-0 win over Villarreal last night.
The two-time Ballon d’Or winner was attempting a bicycle kick when he picked up the injury which saw him leave the pitch in added time.
Spanish football journalist Dermot Corrigan last night tweeted: “Sources at Bernabeu saying that Ronaldo probably / hopefully only has a severe cramp, altho not ruling out something more serious.”
Real boss Zinedine Zidane said: “Ronaldo felt something just at the end. I believe it’s more fright than anything serious. We’ll see tomorrow, but I’m relaxed now.”
More tests will be carried out today but it is expected that Ronaldo will miss the weekend derby with Rayo Vallecano.
Further updates will likely surface on that one in the coming hours and days.
