Man City sent bizarre transfer warning about £12.5m January arrival

It's hardly a surprise that River Plate want to keep their exciting midfield talent Claudio Echeverri, who will join Manchester City full-time in January.

Yet their latest method to persuade City to extend his loan at River is to publicly doubt Echeverri's ability to adapt to European football. City signed the 18-year-old in January for an initial £12.5m, agreeing to let him stay at River for their 2024 season, which ends in December.

The Blues have decided that Echeverri will join their squad in January 2025, as MEN Sport reported last month, where he will be given the chance to impress Pep Guardiola. Despite that, River are still keen to extend Echeverri's loan after 37 appearances this year where he has scored four goals and added five assists. He also played in Argentina's Olympic campaign in Paris, scoring in their final group game off the bench but only amassing 17 minutes across three substitute appearances.

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Now, in their latest attempt to keep Echeverri, his River manager has claimed he is not ready for European football - and would be better spending another year in Argentina.

“Some players are ready to make the jump to Europe and others are not,” said Marcelo Gallardo, via TyC. “Claudio is a very young boy, he still needs to develop in Argentinian football, he still needs to finish developing his physique and then he has all the technical qualities to be a great footballer. He’s in a process of development which is normal, he is only 18 years old.

“I hope we can keep him for another year and that he