Barcelona are reportedly set to complete a deal to sign Dutch goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen from Ajax in a deal worth between €10m and €12m.
The Dutchman is set for a dream move to the Catalan giants, with Barca identifying him as a replacement for Claudio Bravo.
As reported by The Daily Mail, the bid has been lodged and is likely to be accepted by Ajax, which in turn will now allow Bravo to make his move to Manchester City.
In turn, it will also have a knock-on effect for Joe Hart who has fallen out of favour under Pep Guardiola, and he will now expect to secure an exit away from City ahead of the transfer deadline at the end of the month.
Despite the bid arriving at an awkward time with Ajax pushing to secure qualification for the Champions League, the Dutch giants have conceded that the offer is too good to turn down, as noted in the report.
As a result, despite the fact that Cillessen has been guilty of making mistakes in his last two European outings, Barca have evidently seen enough in him to be confident that he can be a success at the club moving forward.
Bravo’s expected exit would allow Marc-Andre ter Stegen to establish himself as the top choice at the club, while the Chilean goalkeeper will likely form an important part of Guardiola’s plans in Manchester.
The Spaniard has evidently decided that Hart doesn’t have a future under him after snubbing him in favour of Willy Caballero for the first two games of the season.
Hart’s lack of quality in his distribution and habit of making costly errors in recent times have been put down as the main reasons as to why Guardiola is making the change, and Cillessen’s move to Barcelona will now set the wheels in motion for other deals to happen.