"?Manchester City are expected to make Ilkay Gundogan the first signing of the Pep Guardiola era as initially planned, despite the player currently nursing a knee injury that will force him to miss the start of next season.
According to the Daily Telegraph, City are pushing ahead to conclude the deal as soon as this week after reaching an agreement with Borussia Dortmund worth £20.1m. That could further rise to £21.6m, or the equivalent of €28m.
Gundogan's current spell on the sidelines, which will also cause him to miss Euro 2016 with Germany, came as a result of a dislocated a knee cap thought to have been suffered while playing basketball earlier this month.
The midfielder has since undergone surgery and his recovery is now estimated at anywhere between four and six months. It hasn't been enough to put City and Guardiola off, however, and the Telegraph report claims they are confident he could even be ready for action sooner if his rehabilitation goes uninterrupted.
But beyond just Gundogan, it looks as though the summer will be a very busy one at the Etihad Stadium. A number of players, including Yaya Toure after lucrative offers from China, are expected to leave, while as many as eight new faces could arrive to bolster a squad that proved far too weak to challenge in multiple competitions in 2015/16.
Young talents John Stones and Leroy Sane remain on the club's transfer radar, while Guardiola is likely to bring in a new back-up goalkeeper, a new full-back on either side of the back four, and a new striker as well.
Besides Toure, the likes of Willy Caballero, Pablo Zabaleta, Aleksandar Kolarov, Jesus Navas, Wilfried Bony and maybe even injury prone captain Vincent Kompany are believed to be under threat.
To continue the discussion on Twitter follow @jamiespencer155
Visit www.facebook.com/jamiespencer155
"?"?