Fabrizio Romano has explained why Manchester City did not sign Portuguese left-back Nuno Mendes last month.
What happened with Nuno Mendes this summer?
After winning the league with Sporting Lisbon last season, Mendes was part of the Portugal squad that made the last 16 of Euro 2020 earlier this summer.
He capped off his remarkable rise over the last 12 months by moving to PSG on deadline day on a season-long loan. The French club have the option to buy the 19-year-old outright next summer.
What has Romano said about Mendes?
Things could have been very different, though.
Romano has claimed that City made a proposal to sign Mendes permanently back in June, but they opted against pursuing a move for him after learning Sporting's asking price for the player.
He said on The Here We Go Podcast: “It’s really important to say about Manchester City because they wanted Nuno Mendes. They really wanted Nuno Mendes. They had the chance of signing this player on deadline day because his agent Miguel Pinho was talking for a long time with Man City, Paris Saint-Germain and with Manchester United.
“Manchester United were not looking at this option because they have Telles and they have Luke Shaw so they are very happy with their left-backs. But Manchester City had a serious interest in this player, but they wanted to pay for a different value of Nuno Mendes.
“It was June, and they were discussing about an opening proposal around €20m (£17.2m) but Sporting said ‘no’ to this kind of value. They wanted around €40m (£34.5m) for Nuno Mendes, and they decided, for Manchester City, ‘ok, no, this summer we are not signing the player. Let’s see in the future, we will follow him for the future.’”
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Will City regret not signing Mendes?
Possibly.
Despite having a supremely talented squad that won the Premier League at a canter last season, left-back remains somewhat of a problem position for Pep Guardiola.
Oleksandr Zinchenko has shown some promising signs in recent years yet lacks consistency, while Joao Cancelo can cover this role but is right-footed and looks more comfortable on the opposite flank.
Mendes is still only 19, and looks to be a hot prospect who could have made the left-back position his own for years to come. However, City have missed out on the 7-cap international, and they may now watch him fulfill his potential at another Champions League club, wishing that they had stumped up the extra cash to sign him from Sporting before he went to PSG.