Manchester City agree £54m deal for Kevin de Bruyne... as Premier League leaders take summer spending past £150m

Manchester City will break their transfer record for the second time this summer after finally agreeing terms with Wolfsburg over a £54million deal for Kevin de Bruyne.

One of the longest-running transfer sagas of the year neared conclusion on Wednesday when the German club accepted an improved offer.

It will eclipse the £49m that City paid Liverpool for Raheem Sterling last month and take their summer spending to the £150m mark.

It is understood that the finer points of the deal have yet to be completed but De Bruyne has been withdrawn from Wolfsburg’s game at home to Schalke on Friday and is set to move to the Etihad on a six-year contract worth in excess of £200,000-a-week.

His agent Patrick De Koster said: ‘The deal has not happened yet. Maybe it will be done tomorrow.

KEVIN DE BRUYNE STATS 2014/15 

Appearances                            34

Goals                                        10

Shooting accuracy                    54%

Chances created                      111

Passing accuracy                      75%

Yellow/red card                         3/0

City have been confident for some time that the 24-year-old Belgium forward wanted to return to English football, having previously had an unhappy two-year spell with Chelsea.

But convincing Wolfsburg to sell their prize asset and the current German player of the year has proved more difficult, with the Bundesliga club’s sporting director Klaus Allofs and head coach Dieter Hecking insisting that De Bruyne would stay.

The player and his representatives were adamant that he would not hand in a transfer request to force the deal through, and negotiations were further complicated by rival interest from Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich.

MAN CITY 2015 SIGNINGS 

Raheem Sterling (Liverpool, £49m)

Nicolas Otamendi (Valencia, £32m)

Fabian Delph (Aston Villa, £8m)

Patrick Roberts (Fulham, £8m)

Enes Unal (Bursaspor, £2m) 

But having established De Bruyne as one of their prime transfer targets this summer alongside Sterling, City were determined to get their man. The fee is second only to Manchester United’s £59.7m signing of Angel di Maria last summer in the list of British record transfers.

It will lift City’s spending this summer to £150m after they followed up the £49m Sterling deal by paying Valencia £32m for defender Nicolas Otamendi and Aston Villa £8m for midfielder Fabian Delph. 

They have also strengthened their youth ranks by signing Fulham forward Patrick Roberts for an initial £4m and Bursaspor striker Enes Unal for £2m, and hope to conclude a £2.1m deal for Villarreal’s teenage midfielder Aleix.