Sun Sport<\/a> is reporting that Pep Guardiola is interested in signing Athletic Bilbao\u2019s Aymeric Laporte.<\/p>\nThe French defender is one of the stars of the Basque team and his performances have attracted the interests of some of the biggest teams in Europe.<\/p>\n
He become only the second non-Basque player to play for Bilbao when he signed for them in the summer of 2010.<\/p>\n
He made his debut two years later and has not looked back since that time.<\/p>\n
Manchester City have the chance to win about four trophies this season, but their defence is being rocked by the persistent injuries to Vincent Kompany and lack of alternatives with only the poor Eliakim Mangala available to replace any injured centre back.<\/p>\n
Guardiola wanted to sign Virgil van Dijk, but the Dutchman joined Liverpool instead.<\/p>\n
Laporte has a \u00a360 million release clause written into his current deal, and City are considering triggering it.<\/p>\n
Guardiola is also looking at Real Sociedad\u2019s Inigo Martinez, but Laporte is his first choice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Manchester City are still trying to fix their defensive issues, and the Cityzens have taken their search for a new defender to Spain. Sun Sport is reporting that Pep Guardiola is interested in signing Athletic Bilbao\u2019s Aymeric Laporte. The French defender is one of the stars of the Basque team and his performances have attracted the interests of some of the biggest teams in Europe. He become only the second non-Basque player to play for Bilbao when he signed for them in the summer of 2010. He made his debut two years later and has not looked back since that time. Manchester City have the chance to win about four trophies this season, but their defence is being rocked by the persistent injuries to Vincent Kompany and lack of alternatives with only the poor Eliakim Mangala available to replace any injured centre back. Guardiola wanted to sign Virgil van Dijk, but the Dutchman joined Liverpool instead. Laporte has a \u00a360 million release clause written into his current deal, and City are considering triggering it. Guardiola is also looking at Real Sociedad\u2019s Inigo Martinez, but Laporte is his first choice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1901,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","category-transfer-news"],"yoast_head":"\n
Manchester City eye stunning move for \u00a360 million rated defender - Matchplug Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/manchester-city-eye-stunning-move-for-60-million-rated-defender\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Manchester City eye stunning move for \u00a360 million rated defender - Matchplug Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Manchester City are still trying to fix their defensive issues, and the Cityzens have taken their search for a new defender to Spain. Sun Sport is reporting that Pep Guardiola is interested in signing Athletic Bilbao\u2019s Aymeric Laporte. The French defender is one of the stars of the Basque team and his performances have attracted the interests of some of the biggest teams in Europe. He become only the second non-Basque player to play for Bilbao when he signed for them in the summer of 2010. He made his debut two years later and has not looked back since that time. Manchester City have the chance to win about four trophies this season, but their defence is being rocked by the persistent injuries to Vincent Kompany and lack of alternatives with only the poor Eliakim Mangala available to replace any injured centre back. Guardiola wanted to sign Virgil van Dijk, but the Dutchman joined Liverpool instead. Laporte has a \u00a360 million release clause written into his current deal, and City are considering triggering it. Guardiola is also looking at Real Sociedad\u2019s Inigo Martinez, but Laporte is his first choice.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/manchester-city-eye-stunning-move-for-60-million-rated-defender\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Matchplug Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-01-23T14:01:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-24T19:31:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/aymeric-laporte-matchplug-soccer-predictions-betting-tips.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"623\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/manchester-city-eye-stunning-move-for-60-million-rated-defender\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/manchester-city-eye-stunning-move-for-60-million-rated-defender\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Manchester City eye stunning move for \u00a360 million rated defender\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-01-23T14:01:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-24T19:31:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/manchester-city-eye-stunning-move-for-60-million-rated-defender\/\"},\"wordCount\":198,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/manchester-city-eye-stunning-move-for-60-million-rated-defender\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/aymeric-laporte-matchplug-soccer-predictions-betting-tips.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Football\",\"Transfer news\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/manchester-city-eye-stunning-move-for-60-million-rated-defender\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/manchester-city-eye-stunning-move-for-60-million-rated-defender\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/manchester-city-eye-stunning-move-for-60-million-rated-defender\/\",\"name\":\"Manchester City eye stunning move for \u00a360 million rated defender - Matchplug Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/manchester-city-eye-stunning-move-for-60-million-rated-defender\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/manchester-city-eye-stunning-move-for-60-million-rated-defender\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/aymeric-laporte-matchplug-soccer-predictions-betting-tips.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-01-23T14:01:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-24T19:31:28+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/manchester-city-eye-stunning-move-for-60-million-rated-defender\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/manchester-city-eye-stunning-move-for-60-million-rated-defender\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/manchester-city-eye-stunning-move-for-60-million-rated-defender\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/aymeric-laporte-matchplug-soccer-predictions-betting-tips.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/aymeric-laporte-matchplug-soccer-predictions-betting-tips.jpg\",\"width\":1100,\"height\":623},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/manchester-city-eye-stunning-move-for-60-million-rated-defender\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Manchester City eye stunning move for \u00a360 million rated defender\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/matchplug.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Matchplug Blog\",\"description\":\"Matchplug is the best soccer prediction site connecting bettors with winning tips. 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