Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola will launch a hunt for a long-term successor to midfield general Fernandinho in January, according to the Evening Standard.
The newspaper report that City are adopting a more patient approach in the transfer market and have identified a holding midfielder as the priority in the coming windows.
The Standard claim that Borussia Dortmund star Julian Weigl is a potential target, as is Wolves ace Ruben Neves, although a £60million price tag may see City look elsewhere.
It is said that many at the club, including Guardiola, believe they are too reliant upon the Brazil international, with no other natural defensive midfielders present in the squad.
OPINION
It is not surprising to hear that Guardiola is set to launch a hunt for a defensive midfielder next, with swoops for Jorginho and Fred both failing in the past two windows. City are known to have been fuming with Napoli over their failure to land Jorginho, with Chelsea instead winning the race for the Italy international. Guardiola is reported by the Standard to have been particularly devastated by that turn of events, but the Spaniard is obviously ready to be patient in his search for an alternative. City are by no means short of players who can come in for Fernandinho, even if they are not naturally defensive, and that should be enough to buy them time in this search. A swoop for Weigl looks like one that could make sense, with the young German impressing hugely in recent seasons, but Guardiola will no doubt do much more research before coming to a final decision on his targets.