Man City nearing capture of Barcelona keeper

Manchester City appear to be on the brink of completing a move for FC Barcelona goalkeeper Claudio Bravo, after the player was allowed to skip training this morning to finalise his Premier League switch.

As confirmed by Barcelona’s official Twitter account, Bravo has been given permission to miss training today, which has led to widespread speculation that the 33-year-old is set to fly to England to tie up a transfer to Manchester City.

City are known to be in the market for a new keeper, with new manager Pep Guardiola having dropped England number one Joe Hart for a perceived inability to effectively play the sweeper-keeper role, as well as having sub-par distribution skills.

The Catalan tactician has instead been selected former Malaga stopper Willy Caballero to start for the Citizens so for this season, but this is thought to be only a short term measure while the club try to sign a new goalkeeper before deadline day.

Guardiola’s preferred option was Barça’s 24-year-old Germany international Marc-André ter Stegen, but the Spanish champions intend to make the former Borussia Monchengladbach player their number one this season, once he has returned from injury.

So instead City have turned their attention to Bravo, who, despite having been the club’s first choice between the stick in La Liga for the last two seasons, was set to play second fiddle to ter Stegen this term.

The Chile international will cost City around €20 million, and Barcelona are said to be close to signing Jasper Cillessen from Ajax as a replacement.