Manchester City defender Aymeric Laporte looks as if he will depart the North of England this summer, and he may well set sail for home.
Athletic Club can no doubt be considered his home having come through the system at Lezama during his teenage years before making the move to join City. Yet after losing his spot in the starting team, and playing just 19 minutes in the Champions League knockout stages, Relevo say he is willing to depart City this summer.
Los Leones have been in touch with his agents to see if a deal is possible, and are willing to take things slow in order to work out a solution. Laporte is evaluating his options, and will likely wait until into August in order to resolve his future, but supposedly is incresaingly open to returning to Bilbao this summer.
Athletic will have to make a financial effort and hope that Laporte is willing to forego some money that he might earn elsewhere. City are open to ‘friendly’ deal in order to facilitate a move, knowing they would not be strengthening a rival.
For now, Athletic have put other options such as Osasuna’s David Garcia on hold in the hope they can make Laporte their star signing of the summer, replacing Inigo Martinez. Barcelona had also been linked to Laporte before signing Martinez.
If they could pull it off, Laporte would not only strengthen their defence significantly, it would send a message of ambition to the rest of the squad. Still just 29, Laporte’s experiences under Guardiola would serve Athletic well as they look to battle for European football again.
