Pep Guardiola identifies Manchester City’s long-term replacement transfer target for Kevin De Bruyne | OneFootball

Manchester City have now been made aware of whom Pep Guardiola would like to bring into the club to replace Kevin De Bruyne at the heart of his midfield attacking threat.

The legendary Belgian midfielder is approaching the natural conclusion of his existing Manchester City contract, with no talks currently scheduled over an extension or to formally decide the next steps of the player in his top-level football career.

De Bruyne has played down the idea that talks must happen soon as he told a press conference in November of his clear focus being on maintaining fitness and performing to the best possible level during a difficult season for the club.

“Questions will come, but I can only give you the answers that I’m giving you right now because there’s nothing really more to talk about,” De Bruyne told reporters towards the end of last year.

“Talks will come, if no talks come then it’s my last year. So I don’t know, I’m trying to be honest. People can say or write about it, I can’t affect that, I just want to play good football and we’ll see what the future holds.”

But now, it appears as though Manchester City’s work on a succession plan beyond Kevin De Bruyne is well underway, with the club’s head coach identifying his preferred replacement for the 33-year-old.

That is according to the information of Sky’s Sacha Tavolieri, who reports that Pep Guardiola has now chosen Bayer Leverkusen and Germany international Florian Wirtz as the ideal replacement for Kevin De Bruyne.

It is pointed out that while the attacking midfielder is on the verge of extending his contract at Leverkusen until June 2028, a ‘special clause’ is expected to be included in the agreement – likely to be a release clause.

Such is Manchester City’s interest in the player that the report claims that the club directly approached Wirtz and his entourage during the winter transfer market over an immediate move, but the 21-year-old wanted to finish the campaign with the Bundesliga champions.

From the part of the Etihad Stadium club, Tavolieri reports that City would have to pay a transfer fee of €100 million for Wirtz plus a sell-on clause linked to any profit made on the player in the event of a future sale.

For now, Kevin De Bruyne and Manchester City’s focus will remain firmly on securing the best-possible end to a difficult season that has seen the club’s hopes of silverware largely limited to the FA Cup.

A Carabao Cup exit at the hands of Tottenham was followed by difficult runs in the UEFA Champions League and Premier League leaving City in a top-four chase in the English top-flight and now trailing Real Madrid 3-2 heading into the second-leg of a last-16 play-off tie.

Kevin De Bruyne has also had a significant development when it comes to his own status within the City squad as the Belgian replaced Kyle Walker as the club’s mainstay captain following the right-back’s move to AC Milan on a loan deal in January with an option to buy.