Attentions turn to Metz forward for Manchester City in transfer market | OneFootball

Manchester City officials have turned towards Ligue 2 for a potential new attacking recruit ahead of the 2025/26 season, according to reports.

Club officials are eyeing the next wave of talents to carry Pep Guardiola’s squad into its next generation, with the belief in various quarters of the game being that the current side has reached the end of its cycle.

It comes after an unprecedented era of success for Manchester City, in which the club claimed four successive Premier League crowns alongside a maiden triumph in the UEFA Champions League and a whole host of other domestic and continental honours along the way.

But after it was decided last summer, largely under instruction from manager Pep Guardiola, that a rebuild of the playing squad would not take place, City have seemingly paid the ultimate price this season with a lack of competitive edge across competitions.

That left club officials scrambling to start their overhaul during the midway stage of the ongoing season, spending in excess of £170 million on four new players in the January market, with the second-half of the work to be undertaken in the summer window.

And while much of the attention is unsurprisingly placed on top-level additions coming straight into Pep Guardiola’s line-up plans, it seems as though work is simultaneously taking place on younger talents, perhaps to be introduced into the Academy ranks.

That is according to the information of journalist Luca Bendoni, who reveals this week that Manchester City are now ‘keen’ on 18-year-old Ligue 2 striker, Idrissa Gueye.

Despite only being a teenager, the young striker is already a fully-fledged member of the Senegal national team after a meteoric rise in the game that saw him sign his contract in France in January 2025.

The switch from Senegal Premier League outfit Generation Foot – a partner of Metz – was largely inspired after a title success in the 2022/23 season, scoring 12 goals in 26 top-flight appearances prior to his transfer into the European game.

Gueye scored his first goal for the Ligue 2 club via a header in a 3–1 win over Paris FC – who would go on to be promoted back to French football’s top-flight – on 18 January, restoring Metz’s lead at 2–1.

On 5 March, Idrissa Gueye went on to be voted Metz’s Player of the Month for February by supporters, receiving 38 per cent of the votes, and just three days later was named Ligue 2 Young Player of the Month for the same period.