Man City's big Savinho decision, £50m starting point and Tottenham interest - 'Wouldn't look good'

For all the transfer exit talk around Manchester City in the past few days and weeks, a possible departure for Savinho was not one of the names being considered.

And yet on the eve of the new Premier League season City are fielding interest from Tottenham in the 21-year-old with the Blues seeking a fee of more than £50million to consider selling a player they only signed a year ago.

It remains to be seen whether Spurs will meet City's asking price and if a move can be agreed but, with Pep Guardiola having been open about his desire to trim his squad, an exit for the Brazilian is certainly a possibility.

Chief City correspondent Simon Bajkowksi and Talking City podcast host Alex James discussed the transfer talk on the latest edition of the podcast, which is now available. Here's what they had to say.

SB: "No one really saw this coming.

"City have too many non-homegrown players to register in their Champions League squad and there is debate about who is going to go and no one has mentioned Savinho.

"He came last year and played loads - more than 3,000 minutes. He started three out of four in the Club World Cup and looked first choice. He played a half at Palermo in the team that looked more like the team that will start at Wolves and got an assist.

"Let's clarify a few things: City don't want to sell him but if the player wants to go... and I don't think the player has formally asked to leave but it would be strange for Tottenham to just come out of the blue.

"If they are to sell him then City want more than £50million, significantly more.

"Pep has talked him up a lot. Even at the Club World Cup he was saying about how he was improving his decision-making in the final third and he is so young and he wants to step up and be decisive in the way Raheem Sterling did and there were so many moments where Guardiola thought is Sterling going to be this goalscorer and then he just shot off.

"But then Guardiola doesn't want players who don't want to be there or want to be elsewhere.

"It might not go anywhere, but for now we are saying he could leave, which we didn't think we would be saying.

"It wouldn't look good optics wise to sell a young promising winger so soon after you signed him, and also that part of the big rebuild turns out to be keeping all the old players and getting rid of the young ones."

AJ: "From everything Pep has said, he has been planning with Savinho for the next two or three seasons and it's not just the minutes he has played but the games as well. He started both games against Arsenal, one game against Liverpool, both games against Real Madrid in the Champions League and the FA Cup final. He started most of the big games.

"Pep has been brazenly advertising 'we've got players for sale' in a way, and perhaps the ones who they would maybe look to move on in an ideal world over the next year or two - Bernardo, Gundogan, Kovacic - you are not getting anywhere near £50million for all three of those.

"City have got so much competition for that position, is he in City's best XI? Is his ceiling higher than Doku's? Foden is a better player and has a higher ceiling, perhaps Cherki has, Marmoush can play there and is needed at centre forward as well to fill in."

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