Hello and welcome to the first City Is Ours daily digest of the week.
If Barcelona make a move for Manchester City star Raheem Sterling, then 'the one that got away' could move to the Etihad Stadium.
Meanwhile, new Genoa boss Andriy Shevchenko reportedly wants to sign a City ace and four Blues players received high praise for their efforts in taking Manchester United to pieces.
Sterling swap?
Barcelona have been linked with out-of-favour City forward Sterling for months now, but according to Catalan newspaper El Nacional , a viable option finally appears to be materialising.
Barca's financial struggles are no secret, meaning that a straight cash purchase of the Englishmen is extremely unlikely. However, they do have a bargaining chip that new head coach Xavi could be willing to use.
City and Pep Guardiola have long been admirers of Frenkie de Jong - Pep wanted the Dutch midfielder at City before Barca signed him from Ajax in 2019, but life at Camp Nou hasn't gone entirely according to plan.
De Jong has struggled for form of late but, according to Catalan paper El Nacional, Guardiola would be happy to receive him as part of a Sterling plus cash offer and coach him into the player he knows he can be.
The proposal would appear to suit all parties; City would get a quality young midfielder schooled in Cruyffian football at Ajax, both Sterling and De Jong would get fresh starts and Barca would get the quick, direct player their attack desperately needs without parting with any cash.
Ukrainian link-up
Ah, the first sign that transfer silly season is just around the corner.
Legendary former AC Milan and Ukraine striker Andriy Shevchenko was recently appointed as manager of Serie A club Genoa, and he already has a familiar transfer target in mind.
According to Il Secolo XIX , Shevchenko wants to sign City left-back and compatriot Oleksandr Zinchenko.
While it's not beyond the realms of possibility that Zinchenko leaves City next summer - he may be a fighter, but it's hard to see how he will wrestle the starting left-back spot back from Joao Cancelo based on the latter's recent performances.
But the idea that he would leave the Premier League champions for the club currently 17th in Italy's Serie A is fanciful at best.
Zinchenko may not be Guardiola's favoured XI at the moment, but he is still a top-quality player. If he were to leave City in search of more regular minutes on the pitch, then any of Europe's top sides would be lucky to have him.
Four City players Garth, Four?
BBC Sport's Garth Crooks named four City players in his Premier League team of the week, although we reckon he could have squeezed a few more in!
Ruben Dias, Joao Cancelo, Rodri and Bernardo Silva made the cut, although we're not sure about the 3-4-3 formation Crooks went with - we've never seen Bernardo play as a right wing-back, although given that he started the move which ended with his goal from right-back, we're sure he'd put in a decent shift.
Crooks described Bernardo's efforts this season as "outstanding" and praised his ability to pick United's pockets, while he dubbed Rodri City's "silent assassin."
