Manchester City are making rapid progress in their search for Palmeira centre-back Vitor Reis. Personal terms have reportedly been agreed with the teenage Brazilian. Lens defender Abdukodir Khusanov is also staying in January transfer Window wish list.
City’s stranglehold on the Premier League came to an abrupt end as autumn turned to winter and they lost six league games from the beginning of November to Christmas alone. That’s more defeats in seven weeks than in any of the last three full Premier League seasons.
Age is starting to assert itself throughout the squad: nine players are 30 years old or older and another three are already 29 years old. Rodri will also be part of this older group when he returns from injury.
Several reports, including from BBC Sporthave named Reis and Khusanov as January targets. Both are central defenders and both are at the very beginning of their respective football journeys.
UOL were the first to announce that an agreement was in place with Reis and his agent and a proposed contract was considered “done.” Negotiations are currently underway with Palmeiras to complete a €40m (£33.5m) deal in the hope that this can be completed before rival bidders become involved.
Reis, who turns 19 at the end of this month, is another player off the line at Palmeiras, which also recently produced Endrick and Chelsea-bound Estevao Willian. City had already done business with the Brazilian club in January 2017 to sign teenager Gabriel Jesus.
At 20, Khusanov is a little older. He has lived in France since 2023 and came to RC Lens from the Belarusian association Energetik-BGU. The Uzbekistan international, who would become the first from the Central Asian country to play in the Premier League, is also valued at €40 million. The athlete State City are working to beat the likes of Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur to their signing.
City also remain linked to Eintracht Frankfurt striker Omar Marmoush, valued at £50m, and Bayern Munich maestro Jamal Musiala, whose contract expired in the last 18 months.
This winter will be the last that long-time football director Txiki Begiristain will oversee before he steps down and hands the reins to already agreed successor Hugo Viana.