Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola insists he will not sanction a £100m move for Wolves midfielder Ruben Neves.
Guardiola has been looking for Fernandinho’s long-term replacement since the end of last season and will finally address that position in the summer.
City missed out on Fred and Jorginho last summer and now look set to pass on Ajax starlet Frenkie de Jong due to his escalating value.
Neves has also been linked with a move to City but Guardiola insists the club will not pursue any move for £100m.
“He’s an excellent player but there are many clubs in the world, many holding midfielders in the world, and most of them can play here. That’s not the point,” The Guardian quote Guardiola as saying.
“Most of them under contracts. A month ago, I started reading – ‘Ruben Neves, £100m’. That is not going to happen, we are not going to pay £100m for a holding midfielder.
“Of course, in all departments in the club, we have in every position four or five or six positions – depending on age, what we believe and, of course, the price.
“The most expensive one was Riyad [Mahrez, £60m last summer] and he earns far away from what the top teams pay. Our wage bill for the players is eighth or ninth or 10th in Europe, so there are eight or nine clubs where the wages are higher than Manchester City pay.
“We try to be stable in everything. When we spend a lot [two summers ago] – it was because the team was old – it was an average 30-31 years old and that’s why we did it. But we cannot do it every season. We have a limit and cannot spend more so that’s why we need to be careful with the players and try next season to see what we can do to improve.”
City host Wolves on Monday night but there are no guarantees that Neves will play this evening after dropping out of favour in recent weeks.
Wolves paid a Championship record to sign Neves from Porto in 2017 and the Portugal international has been a revelation for Nuno’s side since then.
The 21-year-old has endured a difficult time in recent weeks, which has led to Nuno demoting the starlet to the bench in their last few games.
Neves has scored eight league goals for Wolves since making his debut 18 months ago and seven of those have been from outside the box.
