Manchester City reach agreement with Porto for Nico Gonzalez

Manchester City will indeed make a transfer deadline day splash, with a move for Porto midfielder Nico Gonzalez set to go through. The 23-year-old Spanish midfielder had expressed a desire to the Portuguese side to make the move happen before the end of the transfer window.

The ex-La Masia product is set to fly to England imminently after an agreement was reached between the two clubs. City will pay the value of his €60m release clause say Relevo, but have negotiated a more flexible payment schedule, rather than paying the entire fee up front as is the case with a a clause.

Pep Guardiola appears to have identified him as a player who can paliate the loss of Rodri Hernandez in the middle of the pitch, and Nico has the ability to play in front of the defence, or as a more box-to-box midfielder. That much is evidenced by his 13 goal contributions this season in just 29 appearances.

The move will be celebrated back in the Catalan capital too, as Barcelona maintained a 40% sell-on fee when they sold Gonzalez to Porto for €8.44m in the summer of 2023. That should bring in €24m for the Blaugrana in total, beyond what they have already received. Including what Porto have paid, it would make Nico their largest sale in the last 4.5 years, surpassed only by the €50m they received from Paris Saint-Germain for Ousmane Dembele two summers ago.

If Lewandowski plays in two more games for a minimum of 45 minutes, his contract will automatically be extended until 2026. @gbsans

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It seems unlikely that Barcelona will seek to use that money before the end of the transfer deadline, despite several areas of the squad looking a little short. Sporting Director Deco had identified the frontline as the area to strengthen if they were going to, but now with loan options like Marcus Rashford and Mathys Tel already having agreed moves elsewhere, it is not clear who they would turn to.