---
title: "City close in Aymeric Laporte"
canonical: "https://readmancity.com/2018/01/26/city-close-aymeric-laporte/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Elliott Cuff"
section: "Feature Writers"
published: "2018-01-26T21:39:33Z"
modified: "2018-01-26T21:39:33Z"
---

# City close in Aymeric Laporte

Aymeric Laporte was left out of Athletic Bibao’s squad for tonights game against Eibar as Manchester City close in on a deal.

The 23-year old defender has been strongly linked with City this past week, and with Bilbao manager Jose Angel Ziganda having left him out of his 18-man squad for the Basque derby tonight, the Cityzens look likely to close the deal shortly.

Guardiola refused to be drawn on the subject in his pre-match press conference, however [Sky Sports News report](https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11679/11223839/aymeric-laporte-left-out-by-athletic-bilbao-as-man-city-chase-deal) that the club will meet Laporte’s £57million release clause – breaking the club’s transfer record in the process.

> Twitter: Laporte was left out of squad of the Athletic-Eibar game tonight. All agreed with him. Monday #MCFC plans to pay bu… https://t.co/mtFHAxwW9a (@GuillemBalague)

City had previously been in for the Frenchman last summer but the defender opted out of a move to the Etihad.

Now though, Laporte has taken a different approach, and looks set to join Guardiola’s dynasty as they continue to storm to the Premier League title.