Guardiola picks De Bruyne replacement: €40m Man City deal signed this week

Manchester City are close to completing their first major signing of the summer transfer window, with Pep Guardiola having picked his replacement for club legend Kevin De Bruyne.

Lyon’s Rayan Cherki will be the man to step into the Belgian legend’s boots, with City having dropped their interest in Bayer Leverkusen’s Florian Writz.

Guardiola’s side are expected to have a summer of renovation that will kick off with the arrival of the exciting playmaker, who will hook up with the Etihad club for a fee of €40 million, according to Sky Sport Switzerland.

Cherki will join City following interest in Dani Olmo, who moved to Barcelona last summer, and Wirtz, who is now looking likely to join Liverpool in a Premier League-record deal.

The Frenchman, who is expected to make his international debut for Les Bleus in the forthcoming Nations League games, has been picked by City partly because of his immediate availability.

Lyon need to make sales before the end of June as they are a club in financial difficulty. Threatened with relegation because of their poor economic health, it appears that OL will dodge that worst-case scenario, with the sale of Cherki set to contribute to that effort.

The Ligue 1 side are willing to accept €40 million for the 21-year-old, who is coming off the best season of his career. He scored 12 goals and created 19 for Paulo Fonseca’s side.

Cherki has a significant void to fill, with De Bruyne having established himself as arguably City’s greatest player. The Belgian will depart on a free transfer, recording 119 Premier League assists, with Napoli his likely destination.

Cherki to Man City: Transfer done this week?

City want to push a deal through so that Cherki can play in the FIFA Club World Cup, which starts in little over a week in the US. An exceptional transfer window has been opened to allow teams to make moves such as this before the competition, with this closing on 10 June.

There are, however, some doubts over how quickly he will sign his deal with Guardiola’s men. In particular, it’s unclear how long his contract will last.

“While the agreement with OL should be easy to conclude, the one with the player could still drag on for a few days, although the Lyon native has already expressed openness to the idea of working with Pep Guardiola, with whom discussions have already taken place. He believes Pep can reveal his full potential,” Sky Sport reports.

Lyon expect to receive a bid from Man City this week, with the Premier League club said to be ‘optimistic’ that the transfer for Cherki can be completed this week.

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