The transfer market around Manchester City has shifted sharply this week. Since an independent commission on Tuesday found the club guilty of 114 of 115 Premier League financial charges, every link between a top European club and a City first-team player is being read in a new light. Josko Gvardiol is the latest.

Spanish outlet Mundo Deportivo reported this week, in coverage picked up by Sports Mole, that Barcelona made a quiet enquiry for the 24-year-old during the summer window, with Hansi Flick and the club’s sporting department both admirers. The attraction was practical: Gvardiol can play centre-back or left-back at a high level, which Barcelona scouts described as a two-in-one profile. City had no interest in selling, and the player committed his future to the club in July with a five-year extension through 2031.

“As soon as I knew City wanted to renew my contract, I felt straight away it was what I wanted,” Gvardiol said when the deal was announced.

“It’s the best club in the world to be at. The players we have here are amazing.”

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That was 28 July. The ground has moved since.

The verdict changes the calculation

The independent commission ruled on Tuesday that City arranged “sham” contracts between the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons to inflate revenues by £830m. Sanctions have not yet been handed down. The panel will hold a separate hearing on punishment, and City lodged an appeal ahead of today’s deadline. Reports around the case have ranged from a heavy points deduction to the possibility of relegation or title stripping.

Enzo Maresca, who was appointed on a three-year contract in June to replace Pep Guardiola, inherits a squad whose futures are now harder to plan around. Any club with the money and the manager-player chemistry to pick off a City starter has a reason to try.

Barcelona’s left side is unsettled

The Catalan interest in a left-sided defender is not new, and it has a specific trigger. Alejandro Balde, long seen as the long-term starter at left-back, has barely featured this season. Barcelona had been scanning the market for cover and competition before the FFP verdict added City to the list of plausible sellers.

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Gvardiol fits the profile. He has started at left-back for City and at centre-back for Croatia, and his contract, however long, now sits inside a club whose financial and sporting situation could change again before January.

Rumour, not revival

For now this is still a rumour that originated in Spain and was then picked up more widely. City have given no indication they will sell any first-team player as a consequence of the verdict. The appeal has been lodged, no sanction has been imposed, and the sanctions hearing has yet to be scheduled.

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