Chelsea yesterday completed the £40m signing of midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko from Monaco but now face competition from Manchester City for another of their summer targets. Brazil international Danilo is wanted by both Premier League clubs and is expected to cost a minimum of €25m (£21.9m).
Chelsea and Juventus were thought to be leading the way for the Real Madrid defender but City have now made an approach as they seek to meet Pep Guardiola’s lavish demands for a full cohort of new full-backs. If City were to pay the expected asking price it would take their summer spend on transfer fees for right- backs alone to more than £70m, after the recruitment of Kyle Walker for what could amount to £50m.
As The Sunday Times first reported in October last year, Guardiola asked his employers to furnish him with two new right-backs and two new left-backs in the current transfer window. At the tail-end of last season, the Catalan publicly expressed his frustration with the players he has been using to fill positions of significant importance to his tactics — most notably Gael Clichy, Pablo Zabaleta, Bacary Sagna and Aleksandar Kolarov — stating that “they have no talent in the legs to go up and down”.
Walker’s representatives stated that his signing involved a “record fee for a defender and record fee for an English player”, indicating that the cost was higher still, surpassing City deals for John Stones and Raheem Sterling.
The 27-year-old’s purchase followed the unexpected collapse of a deal to reunite Dani Alves with Guardiola. Guardiola, who won two Champions League and three Spanish titles at Barcelona with Dani as a first-choice full back, had met the 34-year-old the previous day in the expectation that a verbally agreed free transfer from Juventus was about to be completed.
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Instead, Chelsea, Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain inquired about gazumping City’s deal, with the French club ultimately persuading the Brazilian to turn his back on Guardiola by means of a series of persuasive phone calls and a lucrative financial package worth around 60% more than the offer from the Etihad.
Ironically, given the size of the fee City subsequently committed to Walker’s transfer, Dani had been assured by the Premier League club that he would be their starting right-back for the coming campaign, taking a particular responsibility for Champions League and key domestic fixtures.
In addition to their pursuit of Danilo, City have also gone head-to-head with Chelsea for Juventus left-back Alex Sandro, who is valued by the Italian champions at £60m. Other candidates for the left side of Guardiola’s defence include Southampton left-back Ryan Bertrand, who is also coveted by Liverpool and priced aggressively by the south coast club, and Benjamin Mendy, for whom Monaco have asked €65m (£56.9m).
