Veiga wanted by clubs across Europe (Picture: Getty)
Manchester City have entered the race to sign Gabri Veiga after ending their pursuit of Declan Rice.
The Treble winners saw their £90million offer for Rice rejected on Tuesday and have now ended their interest in the England international after Arsenal upped their offer to over £100m.
City have been determined not to enter a bidding war for the West Ham skipper and have now walked away from negotiations to pursue other targets with Rice expected to join the Gunners.
Among those is Celta Vigo star Veiga with the Spaniard one of the options under consideration at the Etihad, Fabrizio Romano 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 Chelsea’s radar with Mauricio Pochettino eager to bolster his options in the middle of the park.
Reports in May meanwhile suggested Manchester United have held talks over a possible move with Barcelona also eager to keep him in Spain.
Rice is expected to join Arsenal (Picture: Getty)
Veiga has as a €40million (£35m) release clause with Celta president Carlos Mourino confirming earlier this year they are facing the very likely prospect of losing their prized asset.
‘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).
MORE : Liverpool, Arsenal and Newcastle United in battle to sign £40m-rated Goncalo Inacio from Sporting
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City are looking at other options after ending talks to sign the West Ham star.
