Exclusive: 'I’m sure' – Romano certain of one thing in 'priority target' Mateo Kovacic deal

Our sister site CaughtOffside have a really great weekly interview with Fabrizio Romano on their substack where he answers all of their top queries of the day, and today’s edition had some interesting notes that affect Chelsea.

He’s talking about Manchester City’s midfield, and he claims that personal terms are already agreed with Chelsea man Mateo Kovacic, following up on his Tweet to that effect of a few days ago.

“They have to speak soon with Chelsea” he claims – they do indeed. It’s against the rules for them to agree a contract with Kovacic before they have our permission, so if they don’t manage to agree a fee now they could be in trouble. Later he adds that Kova is a “priority target” for City if they do sell a midfielder.

He sounds confident that they will get a deal done “I’m sure that Manchester City will be ready in the market” he said assuredly. He wasn’t just speaking about Kovacic of course, but saying that there’s no doubt that Pep Guardiola’s team will be signing at least one central midfielder to replace any departures.

Whether that is Kovacic will depend on how negotiations go. But given we’re in a pretty weak position as Kova enters his final year of contract, it seems likely a deal will be done that keeps everyone happy. Romano certainly seems confident that City will get it over the line.

Kovacic’s departure should be the first domino to fall in our own pursuit of a central midfielder, and we would expect Fabrizio and his exclusive column to be all over that too.