City told to pay £75m for Ajax's De Jong 

De Jong has caught the eye after enjoying a breakthrough 18 months and is now thought to be high on the agenda of City, Real Madrid and Barcelona.

That level of interest puts Ajax in a strong bargaining position, with the Dutch giants believing that they could net as much as £75m for the 21-year-old 

City's need for a new midfielder is well documented, with Pep Guardiola's side having missed out on Jorginho in the summer after he decided to team up with former boss Maurizio Sarri at Chelsea.

According to 'The Mirror', De Jong is City's revised top target, with his combination of strong technique and footballing intelligence seen as a perfect fit for Guardiola's possession-based style.

However, it will seemingly take a club-record fee to convince Ajax to part with their star man, with the £75m mooted outstripping the £60m City paid Leicester for Algerian flanker Riyad Mahrez this summer.

De Jong is currently tied to Ajax until the summer of 2022, strengthening the club's bargaining position further.

With Barcelona likely to push City all the way in the chase for the Holland international and Ajax reluctant to sell, it will certainly not be an easy deal for the Mancunians to conclude.