Man City GIVE UP on Wirtz as Romano confirms PUSH for €70m Plan B

Tom Weber

Updated: 5 May 2025 17:23 BST
4 min read

Pep Guardiola, Florian Wirtz, Man City — © IMAGO

Manchester City are ready to give up on their pursuit of Florian Wirtz and will instead push for Morgan Gibbs-White, according to a report.

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The Cityzens have been scouring the market for a suitable attacking midfielder who can succeed club legend Kevin de Bruyne. The Belgian will leave Man City this summer after not being offered a new deal.

Current ETV

Florian Wirtz

AM (C)

Bayer 04

Florian Wirtz

AM (C)

Bayer 04

ETV Range

€104.8M - €128.1M

Bayer Leverkusen wonderkid Florian Wirtz has been identified as Pep Guardiola's dream target for the role in question, but as FootballTransfers has exclusively revealed, there is an acceptance at the Etihad that signing him could prove impossible this summer.

More optimistic voices at Man City believe that he could be attainable if the necessary sales are made, but there is a feeling that he will either move to Bayern or follow Xabi Alonso to Real Madrid if he indeed decides to leave this summer.

TEAMtalk has now confirmed that the former Premier League champions are ready to concede defeat in their pursuit of the Germany international and that they will instead focus on Nottingham Forest standout Morgan Gibbs-White.

Man City push for Gibbs-White

According to transfer insider Fabrizio Romano, Man City are poised to push for Gibbs-White in the coming weeks as Guardiola is a huge admirer of the Forest midfielder.

"Manchester City plan to advance on the Morgan Gibbs-White deal in the next weeks as he remains one of the priority targets," Romano wrote on X. "No issues are expected on personal terms, but work to do with Nottingham Forest as they still hope to keep MGW."

It has been claimed that Forest could demand north of €100 million for the 25-year-old, but TEAMtalk state that Man City are confident of striking a significantly cheaper deal.

It is asserted that the Cityzens are looking to pay a more realistic fee in the region of €70 million for Gibbs-White. This is much more in line with his Estimated Transfer Value (ETV), which currently stands at €61.7m. His Forest contract runs until 2027.

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