Man City have just made £34m player their top target, after claims he could join Liverpool – Romano

Add as preferred source on Google

Manchester City have made reported Liverpool target Benjamin Pavard a new priority in the transfer window.

Pavard looks set to end a four-year stay at Bayern Munich this summer, with Liverpool one of the sides said to be considering a move.

But according to journalist Fabrizio Romano on Twitter, the Reds’ Premier League rivals are now at the front of the queue.

“Manchester City have now Benjamin Pavard on top of their list as new right back,” Romano says. “Pavard is Man City’s priority in case Kyle Walker will join Bayern, deal advanced on player side but not completed yet.

“Bayern and City will discuss about Walker and Pavard.”

City target Pavard

If Pavard made sense for Liverpool in Trent Alexander-Arnold’s new role, then he makes even more sense for City.

Pep Guardiola has been playing with inverted full-backs for a long time now at the Etihad. He regularly has four centre-backs across his whole back-line.

Given Pavard is even potentially an upgrade on the likes of Nathan Ake, who does the job on the left, it looks like a smart signing.

Of course, he isn’t Kyle Walker. He’s not going to give you that searing pace and attacking capabilities. But he’ll give you plenty more besides.

As a result, another slightly ominous sign that City – as ever – mean business.

Nevertheless, the European Champions are going through something of a rebuild themselves on the sly. They’ve already lost their own captain, Ilkay Gundogan. With Walker possibly going to Bayern, they could also let go of Bernardo Silva, Aymeric Laporte, Joao Cancelo and Riyad Mahrez.

They have the deep pockets to cover that if they need to though, and they’ll still be the team to beat. A World Cup winner joining for a potentially reasonable £34m fee is more evidence of that.