Club now fear Manchester City will take their best player this summer

When they want to be, Manchester City are ruthlessly efficient operators.

The entirety of football would have taken Erling Haaland after he remarkably netted 86 goals in just 89 appearances for Borussia Dortmund, but Manchester City were the ones to secure his signature.

Similarly, Josko Gvardiol was arguably the hottest defender on the planet in 2023, and the Citizens simply decided they could not miss out on the Croatian, stumping up £77.6m to take him from RB Leipzig.

Now, with the…