Manchester City are confident of completing a deal for Ayyoub Bouaddi in the coming days after agreeing a fee with Lille. The Blues will pay an initial £81.4m for the Moroccan teenager, with the potential for another £4.3m in bonuses.
Bouaddi has been involved with Lille in their pre-season after returning from his summer rest following the World Cup, so he could come straight into Enzo Maresca's squad ahead of their next league game. However, that deadline has been moved earlier for City because of the fixture schedule.
Registration rule brings deadline forward
New signings must be registered with the Premier League by midday on the day before a team is in action in order to be relevant for that match. With City playing at the earliest possible time as they take on Crystal Palace on Friday night at Selhurst Park, everything with Bouaddi's deal must be completed on Thursday morning at the latest if he is to be eligible.
City are expecting that to be the case, with the medical the last significant hurdle in the way of a deal, but they have an earlier deadline this week than they usually would. If they want to be able to play Bouaddi, City have to get all of their paperwork completed before Thursday lunchtime.
Further signings expected before window closes
The Blues are also working to sign winger Allan from Palmeiras as they prepare to sell Savinho to Spurs and need to sign at least two more midfielders and a forward in the remaining days of the transfer window if they are to give Maresca the backing they intended to. It is set to be a busy finale to the window with significant ins and outs still to happen either side of the trip to Selhurst Park this week.
