Man City prepared to keep Leroy Sane as Bayern transfer battle commences

Manchester City are willing to run Leroy Sane's contract down as they ready themselves for another battle with Bayern Munich.

The gloves came off between the clubs last summer, ending with the German giants offering Pep Guardiola and the Blues an apology for their public conduct in attempting to sign the player.

Sane ultimately remained at the Etihad following the serious injury suffered in August, and the club have helped oversee his rehabilitation with the 24-year-old poised to make his first appearance of the season when the campaign was halted in mid-March.

A contract offer remains on the table for Sane to extend his stay at the Etihad and the club have not given up hope that he will finally put pen to paper, although City's negotiating power is weaker given the player is approaching the final 12 months of his contract.

However, City are determined to get value for money when selling a player as they are when they buy in the market and are as willing to walk away from a deal - in this case, keeping Sane at the club for the final year of his contract - if they do not feel the money is right.

Even if a knock-on effect of the impact of coronavirus on football sees reduced fees in the transfer market, City would rather keep Sane for a year and lose him for free than sell him on the cheap.

As last year, the battle lines between the clubs appear to have been drawn.

Where Bayern wanted to pay £80-90m and the Blues wanted more like £135-£145m, this time an opening gambit of £35m has been scornfully dismissed. If the gulf between value was around £50m a season ago, it remains considerable.

And just as the treatment of Sane by some in Bavaria as a done deal irked the Blues 12 months ago, the noise this week including that derisory valuation has also gone done poorly at the Etihad.

Sane has not spoken publicly about his future but his representative recently discussed a desire to win the Champions League as he talked up interest from Bayern and other European clubs.

Before the transfer window opens, Guardiola could set up a reunion with his former club in the finale of the 2019/20 campaign.

UEFA are still hopeful of completing this season's competition and Bayern and City both have a foot in the last-eight of the competition as they hold leads to take into their second leg encounters with Chelsea and Real Madrid respectively.

That would add further intrigue (and more media commentary) on a topic that is likely to drag on until at least the start of the window, but City will ignore the noise.

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