Manchester City’s ongoing rebuild could take them to the door of AC Milan midfielder Tijjani Reijnders, but a deal is likely to cost a substantial amount.
After a historic run of four successive Premier League titles, City have fallen away spectacularly quickly this season. With two games remaining, they trail new champions Liverpool by 18 points and still aren’t assured of qualifying for the Champions League – even with an extra place on offer.
The squad overhaul began in January, with more than £170m spent on Omar Marmoush, Vitor Reis, Abdukodir Khusanov and Nico Gonzalez, and will continue apace.
Kevin De Bruyne will shortly leave the club, albeit seemingly reluctantly, with Ilkay Gundogan turning 35 in the coming months and doubts also emerging about Bernardo Silva amid links to boyhood club Benfica. Rodri will soon return from long-term injury, but midfield is still ripe for investment.
In central midfield, the Telegraph writes that Reijnders is a “serious summer target”.
The Dutchman is adept at playing in a number of different midfield roles but is primarily known as No. 8 – somewhat of an all-rounder. In 35 appearances in Serie A this season, he has racked up ten goals and five assists.
Milan, therefore, want a club record sale price in order to part company with him, which means more than the £57m they accepted from Real Madrid in 2009 for Kaka, then a world record sum.
City have mainly been linked with more attacking options ahead of the transfer window. Florian Wirtz is the ideal target, but with the Bayer Leverkusen talent more and more linked with Bayern Munich, City have considered alternatives that include Morgan Gibbs-White and Dani Olmo.
It is not clear if the club’s pursuit of Reijnders, a deeper midfielder, would be in addition to or instead.
City are also believed to be targeting a new right-back, which has been a problem position since Kyle Walker’s form fell off a cliff in the first half of the season and he left, ironically for Milan, in January. That deal took the form of a loan, but Walker is not expected to play for City again.
