Pep Guardiola and Manchester City ‘dreaming of’ transfer for Barcelona star this summer | OneFootball

Manchester City officials appear set to refocus their summer transfer attentions over to Barcelona and the possibility of recruiting one of the club’s key attacking names.

Hugo Viana and Txiki Begiristain are currently in the process of building out their transfer plans ahead of the summer transfer window, with Pep Guardiola’s squad set for what is expected to be a significant overhaul.

That strategy will come off the back of a hugely underwhelming season for the club after they relatively easily relinquished their Premier League crown to Liverpool after four years, as well as exiting the UEFA Champions League before the last-16 stage for the first time since 2012.

Much of those struggles were put down to terrible luck with injury and fitness problems throughout the course of the campaign, heightened most prominently by Rodri’s extended absence and Oscar Bobb’s leg bone break prior to the start of the competitive season.

However, others have pointed towards a serious lack of energy and legs in the centre of the park as Manchester City’s overall age of playing squad increases and struggled to handle the intensity of youthful and bright opposition players in the Premier League in particular.

As part of the rebuild, Manchester City have already confirmed that Kevin De Bruyne will be leaving the club upon the expiry of his contract at the end of June and as such that leaves officials will the ultimate task of seeking a direct replacement for the Belgian legend.

Now, according to the information of journalist Matteo Moretto, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola is ‘keeping an eye on’ and ‘dreaming of’ Barcelona and Spain international forward, Dani Olmo ahead of the summer transfer window.

It is explained that City officials ‘definitely’ want to strengthen with a ‘modern number 10’ who can ‘create plays, connect different areas of play, create goalscoring opportunities, and finish off plays’.

From the side of Barcelona, Olmo is viewed as a ‘very valuable player’ for the Catalan club and is currently not for sale, although the report does stress it remains to be seen how they would react should Manchester City make an approach for the Spaniard.

Additional reporting from Toni Juanmarti has also revealed that Manchester City enquired about the player during the January transfer window when Barcelona were facing problems registering his services.

Elsewhere and Manchester City continue to be linked with Bayer Leverkusen and Germany international Florian Wirtz, with many reports believing that the attacking midfielder is the number one name to directly replace Kevin De Bruyne at the Etihad Stadium.

However, there is a growing line of reporting within German media in particular that newly-crowned Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich are the closest to signing the player, whether that be this summer or in 2026.

City are also believed to be holding an interest in Nottingham Forest and England’s Morgan Gibbs-White, and are expected to be the front-runners for his signature when the market opens this summer amid expected interest from Liverpool and Manchester United.