Manchester City and Liverpool could go head-to-head for the signing of Sevilla’s central defender, Diego Carlos, but Chelsea could offer an advantage to the former, conquering one of the current defenders of the citizens.
Chelsea could help City compensate part of the commission needed to sign Carlos, arguing from the Daily Star that a £ 35m strike for City defender John Stones is being weighed.
Sevilla signed Brazilian Carlos without a cap just a year ago for around £ 14 million in the first addition of the famous sports director Monchi since his return to the Andalusian club.
And the 27-year-old proved to be a cunning affair, establishing himself since then as one of the best defenders in Spain.
He has only lost three La Liga games throughout the season, helping Julen Lopetegui’s team finish fourth with the same points as Atletico Madrid in third place and qualify for the Champions League.
Given that its value has skyrocketed in the past 12 months, the £ 70m release clause included in its Seville contract appeals to both Liverpool and City, Star says.
Reports from Spain have previously suggested that the Seville suit might even accept less than that, with £ 55 million being questioned as to how much lower they would go.
Full exercise of the £ 70m clause would make it the citizens’ record sign, exceeding the £ 63m fee paid to sign Rodri from Atletico Madrid last year.
While Liverpool has only ever paid more for central defender Virgil van Dijk, which cost them £ 75m two years ago – the previous record figure for a defender before Harry Maguire’s £ 80m move to Manchester United.
The Star says that despite Liverpool’s reluctance to pay £ 50 million for Timo Werner earlier this summer, with the German who is now a Chelsea player, they too would be willing to pay for Carlos.
Liverpool appear to need a new central defender after Dejan Lovren’s £ 10.9 million sale to Zenit St. Petersburg this week.
This leaves only Van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Joel Matip as senior options with the latter having been haunted by injury problems in his four-year spell in Anfield.
Klopp may, however, opt to promote promising young Sepp van den Berg or Ki-Jana Hoever to the fourth-choice central defender, having suggested that his team will not be engaged in the transfer market.
City chief Pep Guardiola is meanwhile eager to strengthen his bottom line by not having replaced Vincent Kompany since the club’s legend left a year ago.
Although City conceded only two more goals than Liverpool’s champions during the 38-game campaign, their defense disappointed them in games such as the 3-2 defeats against Norwich and Wolves which ultimately proved costly and allowed the Reds to build an unassailable advantage to the top of the table.
As they try to claim their crown, City is looking for a high-level central defender to start alongside Aymeric Laporte and believe that Carlos can be the ideal man.
The report adds that they could be helped by the sale of £ 35 million of England’s international stones to Chelsea.
This would free up extra funds and space in the team with Stones who seem to have failed to convince Guardiola that it is a long term option.
Also connected to Arsenal, the 26-year-old – signed for £ 50 million by Everton in 2016 – has scored only 12 Premier League games with this term after 8pm last season.
But Chelsea are eager to strengthen on the back after closing the season with the worst record of any team in the midfield despite finishing in fourth place, losing 54 goals.
And Frank Lampard can believe he can get the best of the Stones playing football, which was previously considered one of England’s best defensive prospects and clearly has a great talent even if it is not an appetizer week in week in City.
It has been added that even before the potential sale of Stones, which earns £ 100,000 a week to Etihad, City can offer Carlos higher personal conditions if they are to fight against Liverpool.
But downloading Stones would give them even more financial power both to strengthen their team and to give a blow to their opponents’ apparent plans.
It would also allow them to help convince the central defender that it would be an integral part of Guardiola’s plans.
Carlos is said to be making less than £ 18,000 a week with his current deal at Sevilla and would expect to command a significant salary increase if he moved to Manchester or Merseyside.
With City closing the first signing of the summer with Valencia Ferran Torres to replace Leroy Sane, alternative goals to Carlos include Kalidou Koulibaly, Nathan Ake, Pau Torres and Ruben Dias.
