Paris Saint-Germain have successfully hijacked Manchester City’s deal to sign Dani Alves on a free transfer, L’Equipe reports this evening.
This extraordinary news, which was first hinted at earlier today by le10sport, was revealed during the L’Equipe Mercato television show, with the news that having seen City were taking a while to close the deal for 34-year-old Alves, PSG’s new sporting director, Antero Henrique ‘launched into battle’.
Henrique held discreet negotiations with Alves and the right-back today agreed to a move to Parc des Princes instead of the Etihad Stadium.
With details so vague, we can’t comment on the reliability of these reports and hopefully City come out and say everything is still on course for Alves to arrive next week, when he was due in Manchester for a medical.
If this information is confirmed, it is expected to lead to Serge Aurier leaving the Parisien club, and he could potentially be an option City look at as an alternative.
Supposing this story does turn out to be true, and with Kyle Walker negotiations dragging on, it would leave Pep Guardiola facing the possibility of having no senior right-backs available when the Blues board their flight to America for pre-season.
21:35 UPDATE: Journalist Duncan Castles has backed up reports from France, claiming Alves has verbally committed himself to PSG after a series of phone calls on Saturday.
Dani Alves turns his back on Pep Guardiola + Premier League elite; says yes to PSG. #MCFC #MUFC #CFC #THFC #FCB #BRAhttps://t.co/LPCiOxIabB pic.twitter.com/pYaHHo31SM
— Duncan Castles (@DuncanCastles) July 8, 2017
22:45 UPDATE: Le Parisien, known to be fairly reliable for PSG news, report that the Ligue 1 side are in ‘advanced talks’ to sign Alves as a replacement for Aurier.
