Analysing the Transfer Gossip – 30th June Part Two: Cavani, Ba, Shelvey and more

Manchester City’s interest has switched from signing Uruguay international Cavani to bringing in 29-year-old Brazil attacker Fred, who plays for Fluminense, and Benfica forward Oscar Cardozo, 30.

Full story: Daily Mail

What’s the story? The crazy thing is, the reason they can’t sign Cavani is they can’t afford him given what his fee would do to their Financial Fair Play status. This was exacerbated by them paying a ludicrous £34m for Fernandinho.

Does it make sense? Meh. Fred and Cardozo are decent enough but at 29 and 30, don’t exactly fit in to City’s mantra of getting younger players. Again, there’s no resale value in signing players who are this old so they’d be doing even more damage to their FFP balance sheet.

Is the price right? They’re probably both there for about £10m or so, but if it’s too much more it’s a waste of time.

Will it happen? 7/10 – City don’t seem to have the pull to get the real top names this summer. There’s no Aguero in here.