Manchester City join Liverpool and Chelsea in race for Celta’s Gabri Veiga

Manchester City have entered the race for the Celta Vigo midfielder Gabri Veiga after pulling out of a deal for Declan Rice, unwilling to match Arsenal’s £105m offer for the West Ham captain.

Veiga is also of interest to Liverpool and Chelsea and has a €40m (£34.6m) release clause. The 21-year-old, who plays predominantly as a No 6 or No 8, is on City’s shortlist as they look to strengthen after losing Ilkay Gündogan to Barcelona and missing out on Rice.

They have signed Mateo Kovacic from Chelsea.

Arsenal are close to finalising a deal for Rice with West Ham, the final point of discussion being the time over which the guaranteed £100m will be paid. West Ham have been asking for the money across 18 months whereas Arsenal were proposing four years.

Veiga scored 11 goals and made four assists in 36 La Liga games last season, getting two goals in a win at home to Barcelona on the final day that guaranteed Celta another season in the top division. He has spent his whole career with Celta.

City’s assistant manager, Rodolfo Borrell, is poised to join the MLS club Austin as their sporting director. He has been part of Pep Guardiola’s backroom staff since 2016 and is in line to become the second member to depart this summer, after Enzo Maresca quit as first-team coach to become Leicester’s manager.

Tottenham have opened talks with Wolfsburg for the centre-back Micky van de Ven. A verbal proposal is set to be submitted for the Netherlands Under-21 international, who is keen on the move. Edmond Tapsoba is among others on Spurs’ shortlist but the Bayer Leverkusen player is more expensive.