Report: Manchester City's hunt for midfielders may wait until summer

Manchester City may delay their pursuit of more midfielders until the summer, meaning their reliance on veteran Fernandinho continues.

Ajax's Frenkie de Jong and Wolverhampton Wanderers' Ruben Neves feature on City's wishlist, according to ESPN's Jonathan Smith, after previous top target Jorginho elected to follow former Napoli boss Maurizio Sarri to Chelsea in the summer.

However, despite last January's failed pursuits of Alexis Sanchez and Riyad Mahrez (the latter of whom arrived around six months later), and purchase of Aymeric Laporte, manager Pep Guardiola would apparently prefer to conduct transfer business in the close season.

That would indicate Guardiola is satisfied with the current workload of 33-year-old Fernandinho. The Brazilian has started every match this season aside from the League Cup victory at Oxford United in September, but is still influential - as his emphatic finish in Saturday's 5-0 bashing of Burnley would attest.

Options behind Fernandinho are limited. Center-half John Stones has appeared in the deep midfield role several times this campaign, Danilo was successful in that slot with Santos in his native Brazil, and Oleksandr Zinchenko has proven an extremely versatile player under Guardiola. Fabian Delph recently returned from injury and would appear the most natural second choice.