Clubs across Europe on red alert as Alcantara is put up for sale by Barcelona
By SIMON JONES
PUBLISHED: 16:39 EST, 16 May 2013 | UPDATED: 16:39 EST, 16 May 2013
Manchester City have been alerted after Barcelona put Thiago Alcantara up for sale.
The 22-year-old midfielder is also favoured by Manchester United and Bayern Munich but Barca want £20m for him.
City have deals lined up for La Liga stars Isco of Malaga and Sevilla's Jesus Navas and Thiago is a player well known to sporting director Txiki Begiristain from his time at Barcelona.
The 22-year-old Spain international, whose father is former Brazilian World Cup winner Mazinho, has been a target for United in recent seasons with Sir Alex Ferguson having a £12million bid rejected two years ago.
Ferguson was considering a move again this summer but that is on hold as new manager David Moyes determines his own transfer targets.
Thiago is looked after by Pere Guardiola, the agent brother of Pep, and while the Bayern coach is an admirer, he is likely to pass up the opportunity with new signing Mario Gotze already crowding out his midfield positions alongside Javi Martinez, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Luiz Gustavo.
City want a defensive midfielder and have looked at the likes of Sevilla's Geoffrey Kondogbia and Arturo Vidal at Juventus while a deal for Fernandinho has been held up by his club Shakhtar Donetsk's high asking price.
However, Thiago can also play in that role and offers versatility with an ability to create and score goals.
Barca will want £20m and if City show interest they are unlikely to bend on the asking price.
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The mail getting in on the action tonight not sure if they have it through their own source or if they're just using the article from a few days ago in spain. The one thing that concerns me in the article is that it says we're looking for a defensive midfielder which we are but this is not by any means what thiago is. He's not a player that should be laden with defensive duties playing at CDM. Either way if he is sold you can bet there would be a buy back clause in there for barca as its possible they just dont see a spot on the team for him at the moment since they refuse to bench xavi.