Manchester City are set to continue their astonishing summer recruitment drive by winning the race to sign Arsenal target Sverre Nypan.
The 18-year-old looked likely to move in January when he was courted by the Gunners, Aston Villa and Girona.
Nypan, ultimately, decided his development would be best served by remaining with Rosenborg until the end of the Norwegian season.
The gifted teenager is ready to take the net step in his career, however, and has been persuaded to join City, according to The Athletic.
Arsenal had felt they might be at an advantage given the influence exerted by Norway’s national team captain Martin Odegaard, whom Nypan has been likened to, but the player is now bound for the Etihad Stadium.
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City are likely to loan out the creative midfielder ahead of next season where he will gain valuable first team experience.
Personal terms are yet to be agreed, but once a deal is struck the transfer is expected to represent record fee for a player from the Norwegian league.
Earlier on Wednesday, City have completed the £46.3million signing of Netherlands midfielder Tijjani Reijnders from AC Milan.
The Premier League club have confirmed the 26-year-old has put pen to paper on a five-year contract at the Etihad Stadium.
His arrival makes it four signings in a week for City, who announced deals for £30.5m midfielder Rayan Cherki from Lyon and Chelsea’s third-choice goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli on Tuesday, while left-back Rayan Ait-Nouri joined from Wolves in a £31.3m move on Monday.
Those transfers have been finalised in time for the players to be registered for the group stages of the Club World Cup this month.
Will Arsenal regret Sverre Nypan snub?
Having invested a fair amount of effort and resource back in January in their attempt to woo Nypan, there will be a fair amount of frustration that the player is headed elsewhere.
That said, Arsenal are already well stocked for gifted teenage midfield technicians given they boast the likes of Myles Lewis-Skelly, Ethan Nwaneri and the even younger Max Dowman.
Lewis-Skelly, already a full England international, made the left-back slot his own last season but Mikel Arteta is yet to find an opportunity to deploy him in his more natural central midfield role.
The same, to an extent, is true of Nwaneri whose best performances last season came when he was stationed out on the wing during Bukayo Saka’s injury-enforced layoff.
Dowman, meanwhile, is set to feature in pre-season and is likely to force his way into the first team squad next term having already apparently outgrown Arsenal’s various youth teams.
Nypan is clearly a huge talent, but the competition for places at Arsenal is already so intense that this is one prospect the Gunners can afford to miss out on.
Reijnders arrives at City after impressing in an otherwise disappointing season at Milan, who finished eighth in Serie A and missed out on qualification for Europe.
He scored 15 goals in the 2024-25 campaign and will bolster Pep Guardiola’s midfield options following this summer’s departure of Kevin De Bruyne.
The Dutchman said: ‘I am ecstatic to be signing for Manchester City. City are one of the biggest teams in the world, with the best coach, world-class players and outstanding facilities.
‘Under Pep Guardiola, City have won so many titles and I want to help keep that going with a lot more success in the coming years. It is also a dream come true to play in the Premier League.
‘This league has seen many of the best Dutch players perform through the years and it’s an inspiration to follow in their footsteps.
‘I am really looking forward to getting going, meeting the other players and showing the Manchester City fans what I can do.’
City’s latest transfer activity continues an overhaul of the squad that began with the January signings of Omar Marmoush, Nico Gonzalez, Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis.
Further deals are also possible as the club respond to a disappointing season in which they failed to mount a strong Premier League title defence and exited the Champions League before the last 16.
Director of football Hugo Viana added: ‘We are very happy that Tijjani has joined us and we’re excited for him to join Pep’s squad.
‘Tijjani adds extra energy, composure and creativity to our midfield, and working with Pep and our coaches will only see him go from strength to strength.’
City will play their first match in the Club World Cup against Morocco’s Wydad Casablanca on June 18 and have further group games against Al Ain of Abu Dhabi and Juventus.
