Manchester City have been offered a compromise deal in their bid to land Porto midfielder Nico Gonzalez. The Portuguese club continue to insist that the £50million clause in the 23-year-old Spaniard's contract must be met in full after rejecting the champions' offer of £41.5million. But with Gonzalez keen to move to the Etihad, the Blues have been told that Porto will accept a package of easily-achievable add-ons so that Porto get their asking price.

Porto will only bank £28.4million if City trigger the buy-out after agreeing to hand Barcelona a 40 percent cut of any profit on any figure above the £7million fee they paid the Spanish club for Gonzalez in 2023. GestiFute, the company run by super-agent Jorge Mendes, would also be entitled to a £4.3million slice of the deal. Porto have just cashed in on Galeno after selling the Brazilian winger to Saudi Pro League club Al Ahli for £45million.

Club president Andre Villas-Boas is dealing with negotiations with City and had allowed coach Martin Anselmi to name Gonzalez in his squad for the game at Rio Ave tonight. But Anselmi has admitted it might be a risk playing the midfielder given his desire to move to Manchester. And Mirror Sport now understands he has left Porto's camp ahead of a deadline beating move. City have spent big during the January window, with Pep Guardiola attempting to reverse their alarming slide. Omar Marmoush, Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis have all signed, with Gonzalez to bring their spending to almost £200m.

And the news of Gonzalez's potential arrival comes less than 24 hours after their chastening defeat to Arsenal. City equalised at the Emirates, before being blown away 5-1 by the Gunners. “I only regret the last 25 minutes, we forgot to do what we should do, what we have done for 65/70 minutes,” Guardiola explained. “Of course it’s a difficult game starting in this stadium, against that team in the first minutes it’s happened many times this season.

“But after 10/15 minutes I think we took the game and played really, really, really, really good and we are in it after 1-1 and good momentum we pass to make the transition with Omar [Marmoush] and a deflection and the third goal. “But after that, we then continued to do what you have to do in terms defensively and [be a] little bit more patient. and when you’re playing that way they can run and of course at 3-1 they are comfortable, it’s more difficult.

“I regret the last 15/20 minutes, the rest was a really good game for our side. It’s difficult to understand when you see the result, but this is my feeling. “It’s happened all season, we are giving away too many things, we are aware this cannot happen, it happened.". Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.