Manchester City Agree Fee For Ake

Relegated Bournemouth have accepted an offer from Manchester City for centre back Nathan Ake.

The blues have moved swiftly following the conclusion of the Premier League season and have agreed a £40m fee with the Cherries, with the deal coming with an additional £1m in add ons as part of the deal.

Manager Pep Guardiola was heavily criticised throughout last season for his failure to replace Vincent Kompany at the heart of City’s defence, and went into the new season with Aymeric Laporte, John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi. However French international Laporte was injured early in the season and the partnership of Stones and Otamendi didn’t work, which lead to Guardiola utilising Fernandinho in the centre of defence.

But since the restart, the manager has used Eric Garcia at centre back alongside Laporte, however City don’t want to be in the same position again next season should an injury crisis hit again.

Dutch international Ake, who has 13 caps for the national side, joined Bournemouth for £20m from Chelsea in 2017, which was the club’s record transfer fee.

The blues have been monitoring Ake, and the centre back has been linked to the club on many occasions, and now it seems Pep has finally got his man.

The news comes just 24 hours after City were understood to be in advanced talks with Valencia for winger Ferran Torres, who could replace Leroy Sane after the German returned to his homeland to join Bayern Munich in June.

Spain under 21 international Torres could join the blues for as little as £20m meaning, dare I say it, our net spend* following the sale of Sane would be just £5.2m.

*We are unsure if talking about net spend is allowed or specifically reserved for one particular club...