City Outline £225M Financial Fair Play Friendly Transfer Spend, Midfielder's Agent Travels For Talks - The Daily Man City Transfer Round-Up - #40

From the seemingly never-ending search for a striker to the continuation of fringe player sales, City Xtra are here as always to take a deeper look into the last 24 hours of Manchester City transfer news.

In our 40th edition, there's fresh mentions of Inter's Romelu Lukaku, the latest on the high-profile pursuit of Harry Kane and Jack Grealish, as well as significant developments in the sale of Ivan Ilic to Hellas Verona.

Let's begin...

Arrivals

Romelu Lukaku - Rumour Rating: 4

With Manchester City’s pursuit of Harry Kane becoming more and more painful as time goes on, the club could look at alternative options at striker.

With Sergio Aguero’s departure leaving a massive hole in the goal scoring charts, the club appear to be ready to spend big money in order to get their man.

One of those potential alternatives is Inter Milan star Romelu Lukaku.

The Belgian was a key cog in Inter’s Serie A winning machine - scoring 24 goals in 36 league games, and with this summer’s revelations that the Serie A club will need to sell big money players to fend off looming financial issues, the club could be open to bids for their prolific striker.

However, reports from Calciomercato, translated and relayed by Sport Witness, have revealed that while Manchester City have ‘showed interest’ in Romelu Lukaku, only ‘sensational offers’ in excess of €100 million will make the Milan club consider his sale. As it stands, there have been no offers in that region from City, or any other club.

My rumour rating of '4' may be higher than expected.

However, with Manchester City’s apparent reluctance to spend £150 million, or more, on Harry Kane, Lukaku could become the next best option for Pep Guardiola in his search for the club’s next goal machine.

Harry Kane/Jack Grealish - Rumour Rating: 5

Although Manchester City are back in the news regarding potential Financial Fair Play issues in recent days, the club appear keen to continue their pursuit of Harry Kane and Jack Grealish.

The Premier League champions 'remain hopeful' that they can wrap up both deals before the end of August, according to the Sun’s Martin Blackburn.

Most reports are suggesting that it could cost the Premier League champions up to £225 million in order to secure the services of the two English stars. Revelations have come and gone, most of which seems to contradict itself.

Jack Grealish is seemingly just as close to signing a new deal with Aston Villa as he is to signing with the Etihad club. Harry Kane believes he has a ‘gentleman's agreement’ with Tottenham to let him leave this summer, however publicly the club have reiterated the fact that he will not be sold.

All in all, no new information has emerged on the individual sagas today, which explains my rumour rating of '5' for both deals.

However, it will please Manchester City fans to know that the new allegations against the club for breaching FFP protocol will not stop the Etihad hierarchy from pursuing their targets.

Departures

Ivan Ilic - Rumour Rating: 9

The Serbian youngster is one of many Manchester City ‘fringe players’ who will be sold this summer in order to raise funds for the club’s big targets.

At the moment, Manchester City have already raised around £50 million through player sales alone, with another £50 million expected to come in before the end of the transfer window.

Ivan Ilic impressed his loan club, Hellas Verona, throughout his temporary spell at the club last season - so much so that the Serie A club are now ready to pull the trigger on a permanent deal.

According to TuttoMercato, the midfielder’s agent is in Italy this week to discuss the transfer of his client. Manchester City will hold out for a fee of £10 million, however it is expected that the required fee will be met.

A transfer rumour of '9' will be the highest of the day as this deal appears all but finished. With Manchester City keen on selling players of Ilic’s mould, the club will likely not haggle over any negotiations.

Yangel Herrera - Rumour Rating: 8

Herrera has generated plenty of interest in recent years, and is the prime player for Manchester City to sell in order to raise funds for their big targets like Jack Grealish and Harry Kane.

As a player who is clearly worthy of playing in top flight European football, but not quite ready to be a regular squad member for Pep Guardiola, it is time for the club to part ways with the Venezuelan.

According to Stuart Brennan of Manchester Evening News, Herrera is wanted by ‘a lot of clubs’ from across the continent, including teams from England. According to the reports, Spanish Champions Atletico Madrid are keen on the midfielder.

The Premier League club will reportedly hold out for £20 million for the talented South American - a sizeable amount of incoming money to add to their ever-growing pot of cash this summer.

My rumour rating of '8' is sufficient in this case as Herrera appears to have a ton of suitors, and £20 million for a man who could run midfield for a club for years to come is not a huge amount of money. 

Arijanet Muric - Rumour Rating: 6.5

Our final report of the day concerns a goalkeeper who showed so much promise at one stage, but is now attracting interest from Turkey - with a move away from the Etihad looking more likely than a future at the club.

According to the information of journalist Salim Manav, Adana Demirspor are interested in Manchester City goalkeeper Arijanet Muric.

While there is currently no further information on the nature of the interest, the Premier League club will most likely look for a loan deal, however a small transfer fee could be of some interest given the strategy this summer.