Guardiola failed with £60m Deadline transfer swoop before landing Man City star

Crystal Palace star Eberechi Eze could've been on the opposite side when his team-mates face Manchester City this Saturday.

The injured midfielder, having lit up the Premier League at the end of last season alongside fellow playmaker Michael Olise as Palace mounted a successful survival charge, was the subject of a £60million bid from European champions City on transfer deadline day. Eze, 25, was picked out by Pep Guardiola and his club's recruitment team following the £42.5m sale of academy graduate Cole Palmer to rivals Chelsea.

Mirror Football exclusively revealed just days after the transfer window closed that the Treble winners had failed in a move for Eze, who remained at Palace alongside Chelsea target Olise. City did, however, complete one late signing.

Wolves midfielder Matheus Nunes arrived at the Etihad for a fee worth up to £53m, although the Portuguese has so far failed to show the kind of quality which he demonstrated at Molineux last term after joining from Sporting Lisbon. Nunes, 25, has played just 407 minutes of Premier League football and is yet to earn Guardiola's unwavering trust.

Eze, too, has struggled this season. After starting off the campaign in solid form and earning back-to-back England call-ups, the 25-year-old missed the whole of October before picking up a fresh injury in Palace's limp 2-1 defeat away to Luton in November.