Man City have turned down Sheffield United’s £30m bid for James McAtee. Coach Pep Guardiola will carefully evaluate this midfielder after the tour of the Green Man, before making a decision.
The captain of the Blue Man highly appreciates McAtee after the 20-year-old performed well during a one-year loan spell at Sheffield United last season. In the 2022/23 season, McAtee has scored 9 goals and added 4 assists after 43 appearances in all competitions for the Bramall Lane home team.
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He made six appearances for Man City in the 2021/22 season, but played only 18 minutes after coming off the bench in the Premier League.
McAtee is also a young English player and has 3 caps for the Under-21 team. However, he was not included in the England U21 squad that just won the 2023 European Under-21 Championship.
The Blades are keen to buy McAtee outright and have made an offer of up to £30m, but City are in no hurry to make any decisions.
The Etihad Stadium team has agreed to let young midfielder Shea Charles move to the English first division team, Southampton for a fee of £ 15 million, a relatively high figure for an unknown player. Before that, they also sold goalkeeper James Trafford to Burnley for £ 19 million.
The Blues have bolstered their midfield this summer by signing Mateo Kovacic from Chelsea. However, they also parted ways with captain Ilkay Gundogan and left the race to sign Declan Rice, who plays for West Ham. Therefore, the force in the middle of Man City is still not considered enough.