Man City reach verbal agreement for £47m Wolves star Matheus Nunes after Portuguese stayed away from training – with Tommy Doyle heading to Molineux on loan in separate deal between Premier League clubs

Manchester City have reached a verbal agreement with Wolves for Matheus Nunes worth £47 million.

City youngster Tommy Doyle will move to Molineux on loan, with a £5 million option to buy.

Wolves rejected the Premier League champions’ initial offer of the same amount, prompting Nunes to stay away from training as he attempted to push through a move.

Following Wolves’ 5-0 victory over Blackpool in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday, boss Gary O’Neil said he still expected Nunes to be at the club after the September 1 deadline, but the reality was that Wolves were always open to a deal in the region of £60 million.

The Molineux club is now confident that the final settlement will be worth this amount and the matter was expected to gain momentum on Wednesday.

Guardiola called ex-Sporting Lisbon midfielder ‘one of the best players in the world’ in 2022

City were willing to pay West Ham around £80 million for Lucas Paqueta before the move was called off and Wolves also highly valued Nunes.

Although Nunes performed only partially well last season, he still attracted interest from Liverpool and Wolves have always been confident they could make a profit on him following the £38 million deal with Sporting Lisbon in the summer of 2022.

And during Nunes’ days at Sporting, City boss Pep Guardiola described him as “one of the best in the world today”.

Meanwhile, Wolves hope to make their first cash signing of the summer by completing an £8.5 million deal for Girona defender Santiago Bueno.

O’Neil added: ‘I’m excited for the next few days. I think we are well prepared. There’s been some really good work that I’ve seen and helped with over the past few weeks so we can do some bits and pieces and then react if anything changes.”