City boss Guardiola eyes Real pair Kroos and Carvajal
Incoming Etihad chief has identified his former charge Kroos and right back Carvajal as priority targets and is mulling a 57 million euro bid for the right back.
Manchester City have already started identifying targets ahead of the 2015-16 season, which will begin for the Etihad club with a Champions League playoff after Manuel Pellegrini guided the Citizens to fourth place in the Premier League in his final match in charge.
With Pep Guardiola set to take over from the Chilean at the Etihad, City are combing the market for players to freshen up a squad that fell short in the Premier League and Europe last season. Toni Kroos, who Guardiola coached at Bayern Munich, has been on City’s wish list for some time and although the German’s move to the Bernabéu was sanctioned by the Allianz Arena board in 2014, it was not blessed by Guardiola. For his part, Kroos said of his former manager in an interview with Die Zeit the same year: “Guardiola was the best coach I ever had.”
Guardiola opined of Kroos’ move to Madrid: “It was a great honour for me to be his coach. I tried to convince him to stay at Bayern, but…” PSG and Manchester United have also been credited with an interest in Kroos, who is an undisputed starter for Real Madrid under Zinedine Zidane.
The Germany midfielder is not the only Real player to have caught Guardiola’s eye. Dani Carvajal has also emerged as a target for City. According to the Mirror, City are preparing a 57 million euro bid for the Spain international to reinforce the right back position, where incumbents Pablo Zabaleta and Bacary Sagna are apparently not to Guardiola’s liking.