Manchester
City are interested in a January deal for Bournemouth's Nathan Ake - despite
a contract clause seemingly putting Chelsea in pole position to bring him
back to Stamford Bridge.
The West London club inserted a £40m buy-back clause into the centre-back's
£20m deal to Bournemouth in 2017, and they are now understood to want Ake
back after their FIFA transfer ban was lifted.
But City are also understood to want to sign Ake if they can next month,
having failed to replace Vincent Kompany in the summer and suffered as a
result of the long-term injury to Aymeric Laporte.
Manager Pep Guardiola recently insisted they "cannot" sign anyone due to the
difficulties of the winter window, and that he "does not want" anyone
either, having adapted Fernandinho to centre-back.
But the Spaniard also conceded that "when an incredible opportunity comes in
January for the next four or five or six years, maybe we can think about
it".
At 24, the already established Netherlands international Ake is seen as a
future star by a host of top clubs, including Tottenham and Everton, having
developed well under Eddie Howe on the south coast.
But City and Chelea could find themselves in the running for an injured
player, with Ake soon set to find out the results of a scan on a hamstring
problem picked up at the weekend.
Earlier this season, Chelsea scout Piet de Visser urged the club to re-sign
Ake in an interview with a Dutch newspaper, stating "I hope they buy him
back. That boy is perfect for them and he has played with (manager Frank)
Lampard."
Ake came through the same Chelsea youth academy that developed players now
thriving under Lampard including the Premier League's second-highest scorer
Tammy Abraham, centre-back Fikayo Tomori and midfielder Mason Mount.
But despite their growth under Lampard, Chelsea are still keen to sign new
players in January, having been banned from doing so in the summer, and Sky
Sports News has already reported they have been tracking the CSKA Moscow
striker Fedor Chalov, of whom owner Roman Abramovich is a big fan.
City, meanwhile, have also been considering the two centre-backs starring in
Leicester's resurgence this season - Caglar Soyuncu and Jonny Evans, whom
they previously tried to sign from West Brom in 2017.
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