The summer of 2022 has seen massive changes at Manchester City.
After winning four of the last five Premier League titles, Pep Guardiola has refreshed his squad in the hope of maintaining the same levels of hunger for success.
Some stalwarts of City's previous success have moved on. Raheem Sterling is the major exit, completing a £47.5 million move to Chelsea earlier in the window.
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Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko have both also moved to London, with the pair reuniting with former City assistant, Mikel Arteta at Arsenal.
Other players have been linked with moves away - including Nathan Aké and Bernardo Silva - but it looks like both are set for another season in Sky Blue.
In Aké's case, City were willing to let the Dutch international join Chelsea if their near-£50 million asking price was met.
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Guardiola has always stressed that unhappy players are allowed to leave if a suitable offer is presented, but Thomas Tuchel's side decided to move onto other targets.
According to reports at the time, City were eyeing now-Barcelona star, Jules Kounde as Aké's potential replacement - but fresh rumours have thrown a new name into the mix.
Earlier this week, German outlet BILD made a huge claim that City had offered a mammoth £80 million for RB Leipzig centre-back, Josko Gvardiol.
The 20-year-old Croatian is emerging as one of the finest young defenders in Europe and is attracting the interest of a number of elite clubs.
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City are reportedly one of them - and transfer journalist Stefan Bienkowski has confirmed this interest.
He says the Premier League champions contacted RB Leipzig about Gvardiol's availability last week and a potential transfer fee was discussed.
However, he says City did NOT make an official bid for the defender, contrary to BILD's earlier report.
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Chelsea are another club interested in his services and their pursuit of Brighton's Marc Cucurella will not impact any deal for Gvardiol.
It seems unlikely Guardiola's side will pursue this particular deal with their current options.
Ruben Dias, Aymeric Laporte, John Stones and Nathan Aké are the Catalan's current options in central defence and will rotate throughout such a jam-packed season.
Adding to that, youth prospect Luke Mbete was handed a three-year contract extension earlier last month and is expected to become more involved in the first-team this season.
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The only way Gvardiol may join City is if one of the aforementioned four options leave the club - but that seems unlikely at this moment in time.
Topics: Manchester City, Josko Gvardiol, RB Leipzig, Premier League, Manchester City Transfer News & Rumours
Harry Siddall