Manchester City are unwilling to include regular first team players as makeweights in a bid to sign Lionel Messi from Barcelona.
Gabriel Jesus, Bernardo Silva and Riyad Mahrez have all been mooted as potentially forming part of the negotiations with Barcelona.
Sportsmail has been told that City want the trio to remain within Pep Guardiola’s squad for the coming season and would not countenance them leaving for the Nou Camp or anywhere else.
Silva is one player of particular interest to Barcelona, who had made noises about the possibility of signing the Portugal international earlier in the summer.
The Catalan giants are interested in City left back Angelino, who is valued at around £25million after spending a profitable loan spell at RB Leipzig, reaching the Champions League semi-finals. Angelino has started just four Premier League games for City across two spells.
The teenage defender, Eric Garcia, also remains on Barcelona’s radar after his refusal to sign a new contract at the Etihad Stadium.
City are no strangers to transfers involving players going in different directions after full back Joao Cancelo joined from Juventus last year, while Danilo simultaneously went to Turin.
The process of landing Messi was set in motion by a personal phonecall from the Argentine to Guardiola but there remains significant complications to him departing Catalonia.
The transfer window is only open for five more weeks, closing on October 5, and Messi’s situation is likely to take some time to resolve.
The 33-year-old believes he is technically justified in asking to leave for free, owing to a clause in his contract that ran out on June 10, while football was on pause.
Barcelona reject that notion, however, and will want to recoup a sizeable transfer fee for their greatest ever player from any suitor.
It makes negotiations with City delicate, with the Premier League patiently waiting to find out the outcome of wrangling between Barcelona and Messi’s lawyers.