Welcome to the latest edition of the City Is Ours daily round-up, where we take a look at some of the Manchester City stories you might have missed.
City’s forgotten man Raheem Sterling would ‘prefer’ a move back to his former employers Liverpool over any other club, but there’s a stumbling block in any potential deal.
Pep Guardiola and City are closely monitoring the situation of Celtic’s 15-year-old starlet, while reports suggest City were offered the chance to sign a Barcelona forward in the summer but declined.
Raheem Return
Of course, many City fans would love to keep Sterling at the club, but with Guardiola boasting an embarrassment of riches in the frontline department, Sterling's playing time has been cut dramatically.
Despite him having an incredible summer with England, Sterling has been pushed further down the pecking order and has openly admitted to being open to a move if it would ensure consistent playing time.
El Nacional have reported that the Englishman would prefer a return back to his former club Liverpool over any other transfer. However, the issue that may prevent this from happening is the fact City are reportedly not prepared to negotiate with a direct rival and will only entertain offers from abroad.
Barcelona have been heavily linked with Sterling and given Guardiola ’s personal ties with the Spanish side, the City boss would probably rather enter negotiations with them than a club who have proven to be his toughest competition since his arrival in England.
Scottish starlet on City’s radar
City seem determined to offer more youngsters a chance in the first team of late. With the likes of Phil Foden, Cole Palmer and Liam Delap all coming on leaps and bounds in the last couple of seasons, City look set to continue their stellar work in the academy.
Sports Mole have reported that 15-year-old Celtic goalkeeper Rory Mahady is being closely assessed by Guardiola.
Mahady has received plenty of praise after his recent performances for the Scotland U16 side. Despite being so young, he clearly must be doing something right if he is being monitored by one of the best teams in world football.
The youngster has been tipped to be Celtic’s next number one, but the club have feared for some time that he could attract interest from some top sides, and it seems they've every right to be worried.
City offered Barcelona star but declined
When you’re as successful as City you're always bound to be offered players and one player who was reportedly offered to Guardiola’s side was Barcelona winger Ousmane Dembele.
Brinkwire have reported the Spanish club attempted to offload some of their top earners in the summer in order to address their financial woes.
Dembele was offered to City though Guardiola decided to decline the offer given his already stacked wide forward options.
The Frenchman is also very injury-prone and so it probably shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to hear Guardiola rebuffed the offer. The report goes on to add that Newcastle have recently emerged as potential suitors for Dembele.
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