Manchester City star willing to decrease his €7m-per-year salary to join Barcelona in the summer - Reports

According to AS, Manchester City defender Aymeric Laporte is reportedly willing to take a pay-cut in a bid to secure a transfer move to Barcelona this summer.

The 28-year-old Spanish defender has emerged as a possible transfer target for Xavi Hernandez's team who themselves are in search of a left-footed centre-back.

Laporte has seen his game time at Manchester City reduce drastically this season and seems to have fallen down the pecking order of centre-backs at the club. City manager Pep Guardiola has favored the likes of Ruben Dias, Manuel Akanji, and even Nathan Ake in the centre-back roles ahead of Laporte.

As such, the 28-year-old defender has only been handed 555 minutes of Premier League action this season, making just seven appearances. He has also registered a further 664 minutes in cup competitions so far.

Meanwhile, Laporte is believed to be already considering his future at Manchester City and could be open to joining Barcelona this summer. The Spaniard is said to be willing to reduce his €7 million-per-year salary at City in a bid to secure a summer transfer move to Camp Nou.

However, a major challenge for both parties would be his transfer fee, as City wouldn't be willing to lose the highly-rated centre-back for cheap. The Cityzens splashed a whooping £57.2 million to secure the services of Laporte from Athletic Bilbao in 2018. The transfer was, as at the time, a club-record for Manchester City, breaking their £55 million fee they paid for Kevin De Bruyne in 2015.

Barcelona, on the other hand, are currently facing a financial crisis. As such, the Blaugrana's would possibly not be able to pay a huge fee to land Laporte should he be available this summer.

It's left to be seen as to how the whole event will eventually unfold this summer.

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Manchester City manager reveals what Kevin De Bruyne must do to get back to form

Nottingham Forest v Manchester City - Premier League

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has outlined a couple of things missing in De Bruyne's game recently amid a current dip-in-form.

The Belgian midfielder has struggled for form since his return from the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. He has also been benched in three of Manchester City's last seven games, which isn't a good sign for the player.

Meanwhile, Guardiola has urged the highly rated midfielder to do the basics if he wishes to turn his situation around for the better. In his words (via Skysports):

"It's been a difficult season, I would say, for all of us, me included, [because of] the World Cup and many other things. "I'm not going to discover Kevin. Kevin has the ability to do it. What I'd like - I've spoken to him many times to him - is to go to the easy principles and do it well."

He continued:

"He has an incredible ability to make an assist, to score goals and see passes like no-one else, but I always have the belief they will increase and will get better when the simple things, like don't lose the ball, the mobility, the incredible capacity to be active in the movement, to do it again better and better, the rest will come along."