Pep Guardiola and Manchester City attempted a very ambitious deadline day loan deal, it has emerged.
City weren't particularly active on the final day of the window, the only significant bit of business being the loan departure of Joao Cancelo.
After becoming unhappy with his lack of game-time following on from the World Cup, the Portugal international has headed to Bayern Munich, who have an option to buy him for £61 million.
City didn't get a replacement for Cancelo, instead persisting with Nathan Ake, Sergio Gomez and Aymeric Laporte as options at left-back.
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However, it has been claimed that City put in an offer for Leicester City midfielder James Maddison. Sam Lee of The Athletic detailed the information he got on the 'Why Always Us' podcast, revealing City's arrangement was for a loan with an option to buy.
Leicester, not wanting to lose their main creative player, turned down the proposal.
He said: “I got an iMessage on my computer and it says, ‘[Man] City would’ve got [James] Maddison in today [deadline day] if they could, loan with option to buy was presented to Leicester. Response was no.’”
On deadline day, it was reported that City are interested in a summer move for the former Norwich City man, with Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan's future still up in the air.
When the summer rolls around, Maddison will enter the final 12 months of his £100,000-a-week contract at the King Power Stadium.
Guardiola has already expressed his admiration for Maddison, calling the England international "an incredible player".
In October, the two were seen in deep conversation after City's 1-0 win over Leicester and got a lot of people talking on social media.
"He was asking why we didn’t play like the last 15 minutes for the whole game," Maddison explained on what he and Guardiola were discussion.
"I think he realises it’s not as easy at that. But he’s a top manager with a top team so it’s always going to be tough."
Maddison has also been heavily linked with Newcastle, who had two bids turned down for him in the summer window.
Topics: Pep Guardiola, Manchester City, Leicester City, James Maddison
Josh Lawless