Manchester City are lining up a shock move for Brazilian superstar Neymar in the summer, according to Mirror Football.

Roberto Mancini will request funds to initiate the transfer when he meets his new director of football Txiki Begiristian later this week.

Despite the interest across Europe for the Santos wonderkid, the Citizens may have an distinct advantage in Begiristian who spent months trying to sign the player when he was sporting director at Barcelona.

It was understood that Barcelona were set to sign Neymar in the summer after forking out £6m simply to secure first refusal. However Santos have since insisted that no such deal exists.

Mancini said: “I don’t know if it is true that Barcelona have already made a down-payment for Neymar.

“I think when Txiki starts to work here next week we can start to talk about the future for us because this is very important.

“Neymar is a Santos player and I don’t know what can happen with him in the future.

“But I am very happy to work now with the new sporting director because he gives us the chance to move very quickly regarding some players.

“If we work well together then the next three or four years for Manchester City can be very strong.”

Mancini will be keen to add a player of Neymar’s class after an inadequate summer transfer window where the Premier League champions missed out on long term targets Robin Van Persie and Daniele De Rossi.