On Thursday evening some eye-catching reports surfaced in Netherlands that claimed Ajax starlet Frenkie de Jong was set to reject interest from Manchester City in favour of a move to PSG.
De Jong, 21, is a talented midfield player that is said to have been at the centre of a tug of war between City and Barcelona, but it seems PSG may now have the edge.
Pep Guardiola has been trying to add another holding midfield option to his squad for some time, with Fernandinho now 33 years of age.
If De Jong’s €75m move to PSG does go through, it won’t be the first time that City have missed out on a top transfer target in recent years.
Despite the hefty wages that the Premier League champions are able to throw at players, as well as the lure of playing under Pep Guardiola, things don’t always go City’s way.
Here are the seven players that Manchester City have tried and failed to sign since Guardiola’s arrival at the club.
Marc-Andre ter Stegen
Remember this one? When Pep joined City he is said to have demanded one of the two goalkeepers that were at Barcelona at the time. They were Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Claudio Bravo.
If they had landed ter Stegen, who has gone from strength to strength with the La Liga giants in recent years, they would probably have never needed to sign Ederson.
They ended up with Claudio Bravo, who struggled in his first few months in the Premier League and is still at the club as a no. 2.
Guardiola admitted that he spoke to ter Stegen to try and lure him to the club in 2016.
“We got in touch,” Guardiola admitted.
“He wasn’t happy with his situation. We needed a goalkeeper like Claudio or Ter Stegen.”
At the time, ter Stegen was unhappy at Barcelona as he was only being used in the domestic cup competitions, with Bravo preferred as first choice.
A passage in “Cuaderno de Manchester”, a book about Pep Guardiola’s life, says ter Stegen’s move to City was so close, his wife had even begun the process to switch to Manchester University.
“This is the past already,” Ter Stegen said when the book’s claims were put to him.
“What we need to do is look forward. But, of course, after the second season, there was a time when we had to decide and, of course, it’s not just about me as a person, not as a football player. It’s also about family, it’s about my wife, and my wife is studying here in Barcelona.”
Paul Pogba
Imagine this. Pogba is said to have been one of Guardiola’s top targets when he first arrived at City.
The Frenchman now of course plies his trade with City’s rivals Manchester United and has reiterated his love for the Red Devils on numerous occasions.
But when Guardiola was drawing up his plans for his first summer transfer window as City manager, Pogba is said to have been right at the top of his list of potential targets.
At the time, the midfielder was impressing with Juventus in Serie A and the clubs’ director Beppe Marotta confirmed in 2016 that City had attempted to sign the talented midfielder.
“It’s true, Manchester City asked us for Pogba last year. We said as much, but we politely replied that he was not for sale and the matter ended there.
It is then believed that Guardiola tasked City’s sporting director Txiki Begiristain with securing Pogba’s transfer before he took over from previous boss Manuel Pellegrini.
Pogba is initially said to have been open to the idea of playing under Guardiola but eventually chose to move back to Manchester United.
Dani Alves
This one looked nailed on for quite some time. After Pep’s first season at City, the former Barcelona coach felt he needed to add some new full-backs to his squad.
It quickly emerged that Kyle Walker and Benjamin Mendy were both targets, whilst Ryan Bertrand is also said to have been on the clubs’ radar, but it was the signing of Alves from Juventus that looked most likely.
However, late interest from PSG turned Alves’ head and, as well as Walker, City ended up signing Danilo from Real Madrid to boost their right-back options.
Just last month, Alves admitted that he was ready to sign for City until PSG came in and eventually it was a family decision that saw him move to the French capital instead.
“It was all done to go to Manchester City but it didn’t happen because of a family decision,” Alves told Sky Sports.
“Pep knew my intentions. I spoke with him, he knew my intention to work with him and his staff again. He knows the gigantic respect I have for them, which is why I wanted to work with him again until something else came up.”
The Brazilian full-back recently admitted that he would still like to play in the Premier League before the end of his career.
Virgil van Dijk
When Virgil van Dijk was quickly emerging as one of the best centre-back’s in the league at Southampton during the 2016/17 season, many assumed that there were two potential destinations for him. Chelsea or Manchester City.
At the time, Chelsea were cruising to the league title under Antonio Conte, whilst City were improving all the time under Guardiola.
Just about every top side in Europe was credited with an interest in Van Dijk, but it soon emerged that Jurgen Klopp had worked his magic and the Dutchman had eyes for Liverpool and Liverpool only.
But when that deal first broke down after a fall out between Southampton and Liverpool in 2017, City were said to have taken pole position in the race to sign the domineering defender.
At the end of last December, numerous reports emerged claiming that City were ready to sign Van Dijk for £60m. Days later he signed for Liverpool for £75m.
In ‘All or Nothing’, the fly on the wall documentary that went behind the scenes at City during their title winning campaign last season, chairman Khaldoon Al-Mubarak was filmed discussing the potential signing of Van Dijk with Begiristain and chief executive Ferran Soriano.
The documentary confirmed that City had made an enquiry for Van Dijk, before showing the conversation between the trio.
“Txiki, a central defender, come on what are we doing?” Al-Mubarak asked.
Soriano responded by saying: “I told him about the (Van Dijk) price tag.”
Al-Mubarak quickly pours cold water on any £75m deal by saying “You can’t be serious!”
Alexis Sanchez
When Alexis Sanchez rejected a new contract at Arsenal, everyone assumed that he would join Manchester City during the final year of his deal, either for a nominal fee in January or at the end of the season on a free.
Sanchez, along with Van Dijk, is said to have been a top target for City at the halfway point of the 2017/18 campaign, and when Arsene Wenger suggested that the Gunners were open to offers for Sanchez in January, a move to the Etihad looked inevitable for the Chilean.
However, not for the first or last time, City’s rivals Manchester United gazumped the deal by offering the former Barcelona forward a deal worth a reported £14m a year after tax.
That was said to have been the turning point for Sanchez, who felt he simply couldn’t justify turning that sort of money down. City were not prepared to pay Arsenal’s £35m asking price for a player that had just six months left on his contract.
When first asked about United’s January interest in Sanchez, manager Jose Mourinho said:
“What we believe is there are some players in the football world, if you have the chance to sign them in January, March or July, you have to try. And that’s it.”
City were made to stick with their attacking options of Sergio Aguero, Gabriel Jesus, Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane, but never mind, they still went on to win the league with 100 points.
Fred
Told you it wasn’t the last time United would gazump City for one of their top targets.
Brazilian midfielder Fred is another that was lined up to join City during the previous transfer window.
They couldn’t steal him off of Shakhtar Donetsk at that point, but they were very confident about doing so in the summer.
But yet again, once United showed an interest in the player, everything changed. It quickly emerged that Fred was a top target for Jose Mourinho’s side early on in the summer transfer window and a £50m deal was completed by mid-June.
Fred was someone that Guardiola saw as a potential successor for Fernandinho, but Shakhtar proved to be tricky negotiators last summer and a deal never came to fruition.
Last February, the midfielder even admitted that he was “proud” that Guardiola wanted to sign him.
“Coming from someone like Guardiola, now one of the most recognised managers in the world, it makes me proud.
“It motivates me even more to continue to do my best in every training session and match.”
Jorginho
After Fred’s decision to turn down City for United, Jorginho became Guardiola’s top target after a sensational season with Napoli.
Again, it looked for all the world like Jorginho would become a City player last summer, but they were outbid by another Premier League side. This time it was Chelsea.
City eventually managed to agree a £43.1m deal for the talented midfielder, but Chelsea’s interest left him with a decision to make.
For any other player, choosing Chelsea over City at a time when the Blues were in turmoil following the dismissal of Antonio Conte and City were still basking following their record breaking Premier League title campaign would have been a bit strange.
But the appointment of Maurizio Sarri as Chelsea manager meant that this all made a lot of sense in the end.
Sarri insisted on bringing Jorginho with him to Stamford Bridge, a player that is so crucial to the Italian’s style of play.
In a recent interview with The Telegraph, Jorginho’s mother Maria Tereza Freitas recalled the time when her son asked her for some advice during the summer transfer window.
“As a player, Mum, which one would you pick: Chelsea or City?’ I said Chelsea because of the greatness and stronger tradition.”
Mum’s know best, right?
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