Here are the Manchester City morning headlines for Wednesday, April 8.
Brazilian starlet set to sign
The agent of a Brazilian teenage full back says his client will sign for Manchester City ahead of Barcelona and Bayern Munich – because Pep Guardiola convinced him of his first-team plans for him.
City have agreed a £10million fee for Coritiba’s Yan Couto – despite the youngster having not made his first-team debut.
He was impressive in last year’s Under-17 World Cup, which was good enough for Guardiola, who fended off his former clubs as well as Brazil’s Flamengo for Couto’s signature.
Couto made the trip to the Etihad Stadium to meet Guardiola and look round the facilities – and now agent Marcelo Robalinho says his client will make the move as from July 1.
“We chose to close with Manchester City because of the European project, and the prospect of playing with Guardiola. He's going to stay on the main team,” he said.
UEFA's latest plans
Manchester City may benefit from UEFA’s latest plans for the resumption of the Champions League.
The current intention is for all domestic leagues to conclude – and then for the European competitions to resume.
That may prove a boost for City, allowing them to recover from the intensity of the Premier League run-in, and then focus on the Champions League – with no fixture congestion.
There is also the added fact that Liverpool are expected to wrap up the Premier League very quickly, so City will not be embroiled in a draining title battle – unlike many of their Champions League rivals. Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, RB Leipzig and Juventus are all engaged in very close campaigns at the top of their respective tables.
City looked likely to reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League after a famous 2-1 defeat of Real Madrid in the first leg at the Bernabeu in February.
Contract plans
FIFA have revealed their latest ideas to deal with the problems around the expiry of player contracts when the football season resumes.
Their proposals include the extension of all expiring contracts until the end of the 2019-20 season – whenever that might be.
“This should be in line with the original intention of the parties when the contract was signed and should also preserve sporting integrity and stability,” said the taskforce in their report.
FIFA also made some suggestions around tweaking the transfer window, adding that they “will allow the relevant transfer windows to be moved so they fall between the end of the old season and the start of the new season.”
