Excl: "Discussions" pave way for €80m Chelsea & Man City Pedro Neto transfer agreement | OneFootball

I’ve been doing some digging into the rumours about another potential Manchester City raid on Chelsea, following my previous insight into their interest in Enzo Fernandez and Malo Gusto.

After conversations with several well-connected sources in the industry, I can confirm that Man City manager Enzo Maresca has a genuine and concrete interest in signing his former player Pedro Neto.

I can also reveal that there has been some interest from Liverpool, albeit less strong for the moment, and some figures at Chelsea have raised the possibility of selling the Portuguese winger for around €80m.

The Blues have spent big again this summer, most notably on £117m Morgan Rogers, and there will likely have to be some sales further down the line.

While Neto is not someone Chelsea would ideally look to offload, it seems there is some openness to negotiating a sale if the price is right.

Pedro Neto to Manchester City tipped as one to watch

“Pedro Neto is not entirely untouchable for Chelsea,” one source told me. “There have been some informal discussions, internally, I should say, and they’re all on board with letting him go if City or anyone else comes in with the right offer. I’d expect that to be in the region of €80m. Enzo Maresca is still a big fan of his from working with him at Chelsea, so he’ll push to get him at City if he can.”

This is not yet at an advanced stage, but it seems like it’s gearing up for something to happen. This may come in the form of an initial enquiry soon, as City are also expected to test the waters for Fernandez and Gusto.

I can’t say for sure which of these three players is the priority for City at the moment, and of course it’s unlikely they’d be able to sign all three, so that will be a decision that has to be made at some point.

City could do with another winger option, however, as they’re likely to sell Savinho this summer, and Omar Marmoush is another whose future could be in doubt as he’s struggled for playing time.

Chelsea won’t be keen to sell to a rival, but they have shown a willingness to do that in the right circumstances, as we’ve seen so far this summer with Andrey Santos leaving to join Manchester United, while Noni Madueke and Kai Havertz are two big names who left for Arsenal in recent years.