Barcelona keen on signing 3 Manchester City players in the summer - Reports

Barcelona are reportedly ready to raid former manager Pep Guardiola's Manchester City this summer. The Blaugrana are eager to get back to challenging for the UEFA Champions League title and thus want to add reinforcements.

Barcelona splashed a lot of cash last summer, activating multiple levers to sign most of their top targets. Despite their excellent La Liga form, they have struggled in Europe, getting relegated to the Europa League before being knocked out by Manchester United.

They are now prepared to return to the transfer market and have identified three Manchester City players as top targets. According to El Nacional, Aymeric Laporte, Ilkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva are all on their transfer wishlist.

The Catalans want to further strengthen their defense and since Laporte is out of favor at City, they believe he could be an easy acquisition. Gundogan's contract runs down this summer and he will be available on a free move. The Blaugrana see him as an able replacement for Sergio Busquets.

They made an approach for Bernardo Silva last summer as well. However, the move did not materialize and Silva stayed put. The Spanish side could return this summer for his signature.

Barcelona can't spend in the upcoming transfer window: La Liga chief Javier Tebas

La Liga chief Javier Tebas recently claimed that Barcelona can't make signings in the transfer market this summer until and unless they offload a few players.

“As of today, Barcelona doesn’t have any room in its budget to spend in the upcoming transfer window,” La Liga chief Javier Tebas said at the Financial Times’ Business of Football summit.

He added:

“Barcelona has been involved in questionable behavior which has had an impact on La Liga and we are acting accordingly. We have ruled that they can no longer sign more players.

“They sold off £620m (€700m) in TV rights and tried to find different ways to solve the situation but they won’t be able to do that next season. We have strict economic controls. At the end of each window, we tell all the clubs in La Liga what they can spend.

“In the case of Barcelona, they have to drop from spending on wages and transfers from £532m to £399m (€650m to €450m), so it’s a budget of minus £177m (€200m).

“They have to reduce their investment in players and we have encouraged them to sell players because, for every amount they raise in sales, they can spend 40 per cent of that.”