Guardiola personally wants ‘aggressive’ £154,000-a-week player amid Liverpool bid claim

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Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool are now reportedly facing competition for Nicolo Barella from Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City.

According to TMW, Manchester City are keen on Nicolo Barella, a player Premier League rivals Liverpool are also interested in signing from Inter Milan in the summer transfer window.

The Italian news outlet has claimed that City have fallen “in love” with Barella, with manager Pep Guardiola personally “impressed” by the midfielder.

The former Barcelona boss believes that Barella would make his City team better, according to the report.

City, who won the Premier League, the FA Cup and the UEFA Champions League last season, are looking at Barella as a potential replacement for Bernardo Silva.

Paris Saint-Germain are actively trying to sign Silva and have already had an initial bid for the star turned down.

In late June, Il Tempo reported that Liverpool are keen on Barella and are ready to make a bid of €80 million (£69.26 million) for the £154,000-a-week (SalarySport) Italy international midfielder.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp personally rates Barella highly.

According to Klopp, the midfielder is “aggressive”, “technical” and “can run for ages”.

Liverpool could struggle to sign Manchester City target Nicolo Barella

We believe that Liverpool could struggle to sign Nicolo Barella ahead of Manchester City in the summer transfer window.

According to TMW, Inter want as much as €120 million (£104 million) in transfer fees for the 26-year-old.

It is hard to see Liverpool cough up that much cash for yet another new midfielder.

Let us not forget that the Merseyside club have already signed Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai in the summer transfer window.

We do not see FSG paying over £100 million for a single player.

Moreover, between City and Liverpool, Barella himself could pick the former.

After all, City regularly win major trophies and have one of the best teams on the planet, if not the best.

In Pep Guardiola, Barella would get a manager who could take his game to another level.