Pep Guardiola sought Vincent Kompany's advice before moving for Sergio Gomez as Man City close in on signing the promising youngster.
Kompany and Guardiola were captain and manager at City during a trophy-laden spell together and the pair remain in contact. The Belgian has now taken over at Burnley, leaning on his former club to sign Taylor Harwood-Bellis on loan as well as completing permanent moves for Aro Muric and CJ Egan-Riley.
And the line of communication works both ways with Guardiola getting in touch with the Clarets chief to discuss the virtues of left back Gomez, who played under Kompany at Anderlecht.
City are set to seal a deal for the 21-year-old and Kompany's advice played a part in the decision to move for the former Barcelona youngster. "He's so young, open to learn, I spoke with Vinny about him," said the City chief. "He has to improve in some departments, that's why he's 21 and he's going to improve but he's perfect for what we need." "The club is always working on many possibilities in many positions," Guardiola added. "This one target is a young player, in the Under-17 World Cup years ago the best player was Foden and he (Gomez) was the second best player. "He played for Spain Under-21s, a young talented player from the Barcelona academy, went to Dortmund but didn't have many minutes and in the last year played in good hands under [Vincent] Kompany [at Anderlecht].