Manchester City defender Aymeric Laporte is set to complete a transfer move to Al Nassr imminently, according to a report from football journalist Jack Gaughan on Twitter.
He will travel to Saudi Arabia today, Gaughan has suggested. Additionally, he also claimed that the transfer fee from Al Nassr will amount to £23.5 million.
Certain fans have criticised the decision to let Laporte go for such a relatively low fee – however, Pep Guardiola has been keen to move him on for a while now and he is also 29 years of age.
He is not the only Manchester City player to move to the Saudi Pro League in the current summer transfer window – earlier, Riyad Mahrez completed the switch to join Al-Ahli for a £30 million fee.
In Gaughan’s tweet, published yesterday at 7:30pm BST, he wrote: “Aymeric Laporte expected to travel to complete Al Nassr move tomorrow. Fee is £23.5million.”
Who else has been linked with a move for Aymeric Laporte?
While Laporte’s move to Al Nassr appears to be on cards at this stage, they are not the only club who have been linked with a move for the Spanish international. Earlier in the window, Arsenal had an explicit interest in the player, as did Real Madrid.
Neither club submitted an official bid for Laporte, however – as such, nothing should stand in the way of Laporte finalising his jump to the Saudi Pro League.
Will Manchester City miss Aymeric Laporte?
City have a very deep squad, filled with quality players. This is true for almost every position on the pitch – centre-back is no exception to the rule.
If Laporte decides to leave the Etihad Stadium to join Al Nassr, they will still be able to call upon Nathan Ake, Ruben Dias, John Stones, Manuel Akanji, Taylor Harwood-Bellis and the newly-signed Josko Gvardiol.
As such, it makes Laporte, whose game time was limited last season, surplus to requirements. The likes of Ake, Stones and Akanji were excellent last season – with Gvardiol joining the club, it seems that he will struggle for minutes if he does not secure a move away from the Citizens.