Relegated side Bournemouth accepted a £41M bid from Man City for Nathan Ake

Manchester City have made an official bid of £41 million for the services of Nathan Ake which has now been accepted by Bournemouth, according to wide-spread reports.

Apparently, the two clubs have held talks about a potential transfer even before the Premier League season ended, but Bournemouth’s eventual relegation from the top flight practically confirmed his departure from the Vitality.

As previously reported by David Ornstein of The Athletic, City had drawn up a list of prospective candidates to fill in the gap in their defence left by the departure of long-serving captain Vincent Kompany last summer, which included the likes of Kalidou Koulibaly of Napoli, Milan Skriniar of Inter Milan, Mykola Matviyenko of Shakhtar Donetsk, David Alaba of Bayern Munich and Dan-Axel Zagadou of Borussia Dortmund.

Meanwhile, Chelsea remained in the mix for Ake, despite some disputes over the expiration date on their buy-back clause for the defender they sold to the Cherries in 2017.

However, Ornstein added that City had stepped up their interest in Ake and it seems the 25-year-old is now set for the Etihad switch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbUw38kZAWE

The Netherlands star has played 121 times for the club in all competitions, scoring 11 goals and registering six assists.

Following Cherries relegation from the top flight, a post on Ake’s social media read: “Devastated… Love this club no matter what! Thank you for all the support this year and sorry we couldn’t make it in the end.”

Should Ake join Pep Guardiola’s big guns, he would be vying for competition at centre-back alongside the likes of Aymeric Laporte, Nicolas Otamendi, John Stones and Eric Garcia.