Manchester City place eight-figure price tag on striker wanted by English and French clubs | OneFootball

Etihad Stadium bosses have placed a multi-million pound valuation on one of their most highly-rated striking talents amid transfer interest from England and France.

While much of the ongoing transfer conversation surrounding Manchester City is centred around potential arrivals into Pep Guardiola’s playing squad, there is plenty of work to be done when it comes to departures from the side.

Doubts continue to loom over the futures of Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva, Jack Grealish, Nathan Ake, and John Stones in particular, largely due to their ageing profiles and concerns regarding their abilities to feature consistently throughout next season.

Manager Guardiola has also stressed his desire for his squad to be kept limited in size, having left up to six players out of his matchday team-sheets towards the end of the last season, including Rico Lewis and James McAtee from the FA Cup Final.

And while there is plenty for Hugo Viana and Txiki Begiristain to think about on those two fronts alone, there is also now emerging interest throughout the European game for some of Manchester City’s rising stars.

That is according to the information of market insider Fabrizio Romano, who reveals that newly-relegated Premier League side Ipswich Town are considering Divin Mubama as a possible summer signing with an initial request made to Manchester City over terms.

It is explained that the position from within the Etihad Stadium over their highly-rated striker is that any permanent transfer away from the club this summer would have to meet their £10 million valuation, with ‘serious’ rival interest also from French side Lille.

Additional reporting from MailSport’s Simon Jones also suggests that City’s preference for the 20-year-old would be for a loan deal to be sanctioned this summer, while Portman Road bosses are preferring the idea of a permanent switch to the Championship club.

Kieran McKenna and Ipswich officials are likely to be on the search for a successor to Liam Delap, whom they secured from Manchester City only last summer, before now being set to sell the player to Chelsea for around £30 million this summer.

Etihad bosses will have been keeping a close eye on those proceedings, having held a buy-back clause on the highly-rated striker whilst also holding a 20 per cent sell-on clause with regards to any future move for the England youth international.

As for Divin Mubama, Manchester City’s Under-21 head coach, Ben Wilkinson has previously spoken about the expectation of some of his Premier League 2-winning side moving into the senior game this summer.

“We’ve got players we’d expect not to see next year because they’re ready to make that step and he [Divin Mubama] is probably one,” Wilkinson said during a recent interview. “It’s trying to help with that next step and guide them in the right direction.”

He continued, “We’ve had it the last three, four, five years with some real high potential players from the 18s and 21s and now they’re playing on our TV screens every other week. The problem is it’s been notoriously hard for young strikers to go on loan and succeed in the Championship or League One.

“You used to have someone next to you and now you’re a 19, 20-year-old number nine up against two big centre halves and the service might not be great.”