Manchester City have reached an agreement to sell Bernardo Silva to Barcelona, according to a Spanish journalist.
The future of City's Portuguese midfielder is quickly developing into the transfer saga of the summer, with Bernardo yet to publicly commit his future to City after weeks of reports linking him with a move.
Now, Spanish journalist Gerard Romero has reported that the two clubs have agreed a fee between €50m and €55m (roughly £42m – £46.5m).
Last week Pep Guardiola admitted that he does not know whether Bernardo will stay at City or not, and reiterated his stance that players can leave the club provided they attract a suitable offer.
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Barcelona have been interested in signing Bernardo for three summers in a row now, but their current financial situation could complicate their attempts to take the midfielder to the Camp Nou this summer.
On Monday evening the news broke that Barcelona will be unable to register their new signings – including Robert Lewandowski and Jules Kounde – until they boost their income after LaLiga rejected an attempt to use the club's own funds to inflate the value of asset sales they had resorted to in order to balance the books.
After asking to leave City in both the summers of 2020 and 2021, Bernardo is understood to be relatively happy and settled in Manchester but he reportedly still harbours ambitions of playing at the Camp Nou. The 27-year-old started City's opening league game of the season on the bench.
Elsewhere, Portuguese newspaper A Bola (via Sport Witness) have suggested that City could look to Sporting CP's Matheus Nunes to fill any Bernardo-shaped hole they find themselves with.
The highly rated 23-year-old can play anywhere in central midfield, as he did when City faced Sporting in Lisbon back in February. There are a whole host of European clubs that are keen to sign him, including Wolverhampton Wanderers who had an offer of around €40m accepted.
Nunes turned them down, however, instead preferring to move to a club playing in the Champions League with title ambitions. Liverpool have also been linked with the Portugal international, but it could be City who have the bigger need in that position should Bernardo end up going to Barcelona.
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