De Bruyne's City desire confusing – Hecking
Wolfsburg coach Dieter Hecking has said he cannot understand why Kevin De Bruyne wants to join Manchester City.
Both the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph have reported that City hope to sign De Bruyne for £46 million before Sunday’s Premier League match against Chelsea.
The Daily Star Sunday has claimed City have even booked in his medical despite having yet to agree terms with Wolfsburg.
The Belgium international, who left Chelsea for Wolfsburg in January last year, had also been linked with Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain, and Wolfsburg sporting director Klaus Allofs told kicker: “The clubs have turned De Bruyne’s head.”
Wolfsburg had previously been insistent that the midfielder, who was voted the Bundesliga’s player of the year, would not leave the Volkswagen Arena but now acknowledge that they are open to offers.
“You never know what will happen,” Hecking said. “We consider every offer. Kevin will only be allowed to leave the club should we receive an extraordinary offer.”
However, he said he was surprised that the 24-year-old was so keen to leave Wolfsburg, who won the DFB Pokal and finished second in the Bundesliga last season, for City.
“Despite all my appreciation for Manchester City, it would be completely different for me if Real Madrid, Bayern or Barcelona were going for him,” Hecking, who has just renewed his contract, said. “I’d understand everything then.”
Kicker reports that De Bruyne would prefer to join Bayern but Wolfsburg are reluctant to sell to their Bundesliga rivals and the player’s agents are keen to secure a move to City.
Allofs said it was normal for a player to be swayed by the money on offer.
“I can understand that Kevin leaves everything open, looking at the numbers being hawked around,” he said. “He has to listen to the offers — I can’t expect from him that he says he does not want to listen to them.”
Het Laatste Nieuws reported last month that Wolfsburg were open to a sale as the funds could then be reinvested in the squad, and it was suggested elsewhere that they had therefore set a deadline for De Bruyne to decide his future.
Allofs denied that they had set a specific date for the matter to be resolved but said: “It might be that [at a certain point] we say ‘That’s it.'”
He added: “The window closes in three weeks — whoever wants to get him now will make an effort to do so.”
ESPN FC’s Germany correspondent, Stephan Uersfeld, contributed to this report.
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