Football transfer rumours: Manchester City make move for Ross Barkley?

A £50m price tag for Everton's Ross Barkley would hold no fears for Manchester City. Photograph: Paul Greenwood/BPI/Corbis

Manchester City have been unusually quiet so far this summer. Cowed bytheir financial fair play penalties, the Etihad moneymen let Cesc Fábregas move to Chelsea without a whimper, having previously chased every former Arsenal favourite that came on the market.

Manuel Pellegrini did not flinch when his fellow Chilean Alexis Sánchez moved to the Emirates for £30m and the club have maintained a dignified silence in the face of Yaya Touré and his agent’s ridiculous attempts to engineer a move to Paris Saint-Germain.

However, on the day Louis van Gaal arrived in Manchester talking of restoring Manchester United to the top of the Premier League pile, the noisy neighbours are ready to flex those muscles again. Ross Barkley is the man they want to replace Touré, should the Ivorian refuse to stop behaving like a spoilt child, although quite how a twinkle-toed No10 would compensate for the loss of the Premier League’s most dominant box-to-box midfielder is anyone’s guess. It would take £50m to prise away Barkley from Everton but if the old Manchester City are really back, that price tag will hold no fears.

Radamel Falcao is another on the Etihad radar, with the Colombian’s expected move to Real Madrid on the verge of collapse. While Real focus all their efforts on finalising a £63m deal for Falcao’s Monaco team-mateJames Rodríguez, City are ready to pounce for the striker who missed the World Cup through injury – and £60m should do it.

City have told Roma, Internazionale and Fiorentina they want £15m forMatija Nastasic as they bid to balance the books.

Apparently bored of buying British, Liverpool will invite Arturo Vidal andPaul Pogba to join Sánchez and Marco Reus in rejecting moves to Anfield. Not to be put off, though, Brendan Rodgers has launched an £8m bid for PSV’s 18-year-old winger Zakaria Bakkali, so determined is he to land a diminutive but barrel-chested trickster after missing out on Bayern Munich’s Xherdan Shaqiri.

Chelsea have put Mikel John Obi up for sale to free up room in the squad to gazump Arsenal’s bid for Sami Khedira. West Ham are chasingCarl Jenkinson and Emanuel Insúa as they bid to strengthen the full-back areas.

Bojan Krkic is set to break Stoke fans’ hearts by opting to flatter to deceive and never quite live up to his reputation at Deportivo La Coruña instead. Sunderland are preparing a bid for the Atlético Madrid forwardCristian Rodríguez.

Meanwhile, Mario Balotelli has set tongues wagging again by being photographed in front of the Gunners logo. The Mill is currently wearing Arsenal pants but so far no offers from the Emirates have been forthcoming.