Man City to compete with Barcelona for Lautaro Martinez
Manchester City have identified Lautaro Martinez as a long-term replacement for Sergio Aguero.
The 22-year-old is reportedly refusing to sign a new contract with Inter and has attracted major interest from Barcelona who, prior to lockdown, were willing to pay his £98.5m release clause.
Now, according to Sky Sports, City have entered the race to claim his signature, with Pep Guardiola set to be given significant transfer funds this summer after they lost the Premier League to Liverpool.
Any major spending at City may have been dependant on them featuring in the Champions League for the next couple of seasons, as they had previously been banned from the competition for breaching Financial Fair Play rules.
However, earlier this week that ban was lifted, which put to rest any notion of an exodus of key players or Guardiola himself, while it allows them to continue to spend freely.
Martinez has scored 13 goals in 29 appearances in Serie A this summer, with his form taking a slight dip at the turn of the year after a stellar first six months of the 2019/20 campaign.
His performances this season have earned him a FC Rating of 80.
Both Barcelona and Man City view the Argentine as a replacement for one of their current stars, with Luis Suarez now 33-years-old and Aguero now 32, while the latter is once again out injured.
Guardiola has also recognised the need for improvement in his defence also, and could look to bring in David Alaba from former club Bayern and potentially Kalidou Koulibaly from Napoli.