Man City eye summer swoop for Spurs and Everton target

Manchester City may flex their financial muscles in order to trump poorer Premier League rivals Tottenham and Everton and sign Alvaro Negredo.

Roberto Mancini was mulling over a January bid for the Spanish international as a replacement for Mario Balotelli, though decided against bolstering his attacking options in the end.

However, it’s thought that he could rekindle this interest in the summer if City’s first-choice targets – Edinson Cavani, Radamel Falcao and Luis Suarez – prove too tough to land. Competition will be fierce for all three players when the transfer window re-opens for business and Negredo would prove a useful, if not as glamorous, alternative.

In 162 appearances for Sevilla, the 27-year-old has bagged 69 goals and it’s this record that has caught the eye of several sides in the English top flight. Harry Redknapp was the most vociferous of his desire to sign him when he called the shots at Spurs.

In addition to this, his international stats stack up even more impressively. He’s celebrated exactly half of his 12 caps for the World and European champions with a goal.

He is currently employed as a lone striker at Sevilla, but he has the technical ability that could see him capably perform playing off either Sergio Aguero or Edin Dzeko, much like Carlos Tevez does now.

He would offer much more to the team in this respect than the departed Balotelli did though there is the issue of how well he would adapt to being a small fish in a big pond.

This is an attraction a move to Everton, and even perhaps Spurs, boasts. His fantastic talent would see both teams revolve around him, as is the current case at Sevilla. Removing this aspect and throwing him in amongst players of similar or superior calibre could well have an adverse effect and possibly explains why he never cut the mustard at his first club, Real Madrid.

Still, at a fraction of the price that City’s main striking targets would cost, Negredo could prove a shrewd bit of business ahead of next season as Man City bid to win another Premier League crown, something they’re priced at 11/2 to achieve this term.

All odds and markets accurate as of publication’s time and date