The defender has been linked with a move to the Spanish giants, and his manager believes that he is set for the exit
Pep Guardiola admitted that Eric Garcia could leave Manchester City this summer as the manager said he doesn’t expect the defender to sign a new contract with the club.
Garcia has been heavily linked with Barcelona for months, and the Spanish centre-back has reached an agreement regarding personal terms with the Catalan club, Goal can confirm.
Any move for Garcia would be delayed by Barcelona’s election, though, with the club’s presidential candidates set to meet on Sunday to discuss a potential move.
Barca will offer only €5 million (£4.4m/$6m) for Garcia, whose contract with City runs out in the summer, although City hoped to receive a larger fee for a player who has been at the club since 2017.
And, when asked about Barca’s interest in the defender, Guardiola revealed that he doesn’t expect Garcia to stay in Manchester past the expiration of his contract.
“I’m pretty sure he’s going to leave at the end of the season,” he said. “And [whether he leaves] now in this transfer window will depend on the clubs. We’ll see until the end of the transfer window.”
Garcia has featured just eight times this season, having battled both injuries and a positive coronavirus test throughout the first half of the campaign.
However, Garcia, Aymeric Laporte and Ferran Torres have recently returned to full fitness, featuring in a 3-1 win over Cheltenham Town in the FA Cup.
With Nathan Ake and Kevin De Bruyne among the current injuries at the Etihad, Guardiola was thrilled to welcome Garcia, Laporte and Torres back to the squad as Manchester City set their sights on silverware yet again.
“I will see next week but two important players are back to compete with the other ones,” he said when asked if Laporte and Torres will be ready to play against West Brom this week.
“We were lucky to survive this period with only two centre-backs and we win 10 in a row but it is so important we have Aymeric, Ferran, Eric and hopefully Nathan soon.
“We need them all for the amount of games. It means we can rotate important players and it is so important they came back and played so well.”
Manchester City, who sit two points back of rivals Manchester United with a game in hand, will face West Brom on Tuesday before then hosting Sheffield United on Saturday
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