Barcelona and Atletico Madrid enter talks with three-time Premier League winner

Manchester City is the shopping mall for the summer as Pep Guardiola and the massively wealthy owners of the club plan to go through a major overhaul. Raheem Sterling, Ilkay Gundogan, Gabriel Jesus, Bernardo Silva, Joao Cancelo and Aymeric Laporte – who recently slammed exit rumours – have all been reported to be on the market, and unsurprisingly, Barcelona are interested in all of them.

Daily Mail provides an update on one of those players – Bernardo Silva – suggesting Jorge Mendes, his agent, has entered talks with Barcelona and Atletico Madrid. Manchester City have slapped a price tag of €60 million (£51 million) on the Portuguese as he prepares his exit from the club.

Silva’s first-choice destination is Barcelona, but the reason for his departure are cited to be personal. Apparently, he wants to be closer to his family, and playing in Spain, as compared to England, will help him do that.

Far from financially stable to offer that kind of money to City, Barcelona plan to include players in the deal to make it viable. Sergi Roberto has been linked to Guardiola’s side for a while now, with the manager said to be an admirer of his skillset. Ousmane Dembele could enter the deal as well, given his contractual problems at the club.

While the Blaugranas first-choice trident in midfield — Frenkie de Jong, Sergio Busquets, and Pedri — had an impressive season, the European Championship is likely to take a toll on them in this heavily congested season.

Riqui Puig and Ilaix Moriba are decent backup options, but the club would be very interested in getting a midfielder like Silva, who is about to hit his theoretical prime at 26. He would also add some cutting edge depth as a left-footed player who can play on the wing, central, or even as part of the double pivot, given his dynamism.

City, while not particularly down in the dumps like Barça, do have to sell players in order to make space for new signings. The two clubs seem to be hitting it off this summer, but the transfer window is long, and having already signed Eric Garcia and Sergio Aguero from them, this could turn out to be a rather interesting transfer window.