Manchester City have had a €50m (£44.5m) bid for the left-back Benjamin Mendy rejected, with Monaco demanding a fee closer to the £50m plus add-ons paid to Tottenham Hotspur for the right-back Kyle Walker.
City are confident of sealing Mendy’s transfer and will return with a higher offer. The 23-year-old was due to have a medical on Tuesday but haggling over the fee could not be resolved in time.
Mendy is a France international and Monaco believe he is worth at least as much as the 27-year-old Walker, given an inflated transfer market.
If Mendy is signed and he is joined by Real Madrid’s Danilo, another prospective buy for City, Guardiola would end his summer targeting of full-backs. The head coach would view Danilo, more often a right-back, as a left-back too. The Brazilian would also be deployed as a holding midfielder so Guardiola would not buy another player in the position.
The forward Jadon Sancho was surprisingly left behind by Guardiola for City’s pre-season tour of America, raising doubts about the 17-year-old’s future. It may prompt Tottenham and Arsenal to increase their efforts to sign Sancho, who is considered City’s brightest prospect and was the Golden Player at this summer’s European under-17 championship, at which he helped England reach the final.
Sancho was named by Khaldoon al-Mubarak, City’s chairman, alongside Phil Foden and Brahim Diaz, as a player whom Guardiola would promote to the first team this season. Foden and Diaz have made the trip to the US.
