Man City boss Pep Guardiola is reportedly eager to keep Gabriel Jesus at the club amid interest in the striker from Juventus.
As noted by Calciomercato last month, the 23-year-old’s agent seemingly left the door open to a potential exit which would perhaps have raised concern at the Etihad.
SEE MORE: Exit concern for Man City as Euro giants eye £61m swoop for star
Although Sergio Aguero remains first choice up top for the reigning Premier League champions, there is no doubt that Jesus is set for the role in the long term as his teammate will turn 32 this summer.
Jesus has scored 63 goals and provided 25 assists in 139 appearances for Man City since joining them in 2017, and so it’s clear that with his best years still ahead of him, he’ll have a major role to play for Guardiola moving forward.
In turn, with Calciomercato reporting that Juventus remain interested in the Brazilian international, it’s noted that the main obstacle standing in the way of their hopes of prising him away from Manchester is Guardiola as the Spaniard has no desire to see his frontman leave the club and wants City to avoid setting any valuations and focus on keeping him to fend off Juve.
With that in mind, that could be enough to force the Turin giants to look elsewhere for an option to bolster their attack, as with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Gonzalo Higuain not getting any younger, they’ll need a younger option to lead the line sooner rather than later too.
Nevertheless, it would be a surprise if Jesus emerged as their solution, as if Man City were to allow an exit if Guardiola was convinced otherwise, they’d have to enter the market themselves for a replacement which could prove to be complicated and expensive.
In turn, it seems like the sensible option would be to follow Guardiola’s reported view on the matter and snub the option of a possible exit for Jesus any time soon.