Manchester City focuses on a summer transfer for Bayer Leverkusen -star Florian Wirtz, and the Bundesliga side would like a few players from Pep Guardiola in exchange
Bayer Leverkusen wants to sign Manchester City -duo James Mcatee and Stefan Ortega – and the blues will use their interest as a lever in their own attempt to land no. 1 summer goal Florian Wirtz.
During the week, officials of the Bundesliga club brought a planned visit to the Etihad campus -and they sounded the prospect of bringing both Mcatee and Ortega to Germany. City will sell if the price is good. Pep Guardiola is a big fan of McATee, but was unable to give the 22-year-old enough action. After rejecting an offer from Leverkusen in January, the champions will cash in when the Germans come up with £ 25 million.
Ortega, the backup keeper who has become a German international, also wants more time on the field after playing a key role in last season's title when No 1 Ederson was put aside by an injury. City appreciates the 32-year-old at around £ 15 million.
Leverkusen is also aware that City £ 100 million with a midfielder wants to bring Wirtz to Manchester as a creative replacement for Kevin De Bruyne. City Face competence from Bayern Munich, but Leverkusen prefer that the 21-year-old Germany leaves.
They still have not given any hope to convince Wirtz to sign a one-year contract extension until 2027, so that they can include a £ 125 million buy-out clause in the agreement. But the interest of Leverkusen to strengthen the team of Xabi Alonso with McATee and Ortega gives them an ace to play in negotiations.
Mcatee made a rare Premier League start in Saturday's 5-2 victory over Crystal Palace in the Etihad Stadium, where the former Sheffield United-Leninger scored the fourth goal after a good assist from Ederson.
Thinking about the pass of his teammate, McATEE said: 'He can kick it far away. He has a big pass, so when I saw that the defense was high, I just tried to get between them and the goal.
“I don't think we deserved to be 2-0. I think I missed a few chances early and the game just got away from us a bit. We played well, we knew the goals would come and they did.
“Of course we wanted to prove a point and show that we were dedicated and want to end in the Champions League places.”
Ortega also appeared late from the bank after Edererson had sustained a groin injury with 20 minutes of remanes.
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