have entered the race to sign Gabri Veiga after ending their pursuit of .
The Treble winners saw their £90million offer for Rice rejected on Tuesday and have now ended their interest in the international after Arsenal upped their offer to over £100m.
City have been determined not to enter a bidding war for the skipper and
Among those is Celta Vigo star Veiga with the Spaniard one of the options under consideration at the Etihad, reports.
The 21-year-old was one of Celta’s stand-out performers despite the club narrowly avoiding relegation last season with Liverpool among the clubs interested in signing him this summer.
He is also firmly on
Reports in May meanwhile suggested with Barcelona also eager to keep him in Spain.
Veiga has as a €40million (£35m) release clause with Celta president Carlos Mourino
‘Under no circumstances do we want to sell Gabri but we also I say that they are going to buy it from us and there we can do absolutely nothing,’ Mourino said.
‘We know of some of the offers that Gabri has had and as much as we would like, we could not pay him what other teams offer him.
‘We would love for Gabri to be at Celta next season, for him to continue with us for the centenary season, but we know it will be very difficult. We compete with clubs that are stronger than us. Our response to all the clubs is very easy, they have to agree with him and they only have to pay us the clause.’
Pep Guardiola has been keen to add to his midfield this summer following the departure of Ilkay Gundogan, with the German joining Barcelona earlier this week.
City have already completed the signing of Mateo Kovacic, bringing in the Croatian from Chelsea in a £30m deal, but are understood to be keen on further additions.
City are also hoping to sign RB Leipzig star Josko Gvardiol in what is expected to be a world record deal for a defender. The Treble winners are working on a deal to bring the Croatia international to the Etihad with the Bundesliga side looking for at least €100m (£86m).
, . , and .
