Man City in transfer hunt for Championship wonderkid keeper who has already played for first-team aged just 16

MANCHESTER CITY have set their sights on Sunderland’s brilliant teenage keeper Matty Young.

He is just 16 but already manager Tony Mowbray’s third choice at the Stadium of Light and a regular in the Black Cats Under-21 team.

GettyMan City have set their sights on Sunderland’s brilliant teenage keeper Matty Young[/caption]

Young is tipped to follow ex-Cats Jordan Pickford and Anthony Patterson to the top — and City plan to snap him up before any rivals make their move.

Local lad Young — who has been at the Wearsiders since he was seven — is the latest discovery by Sunderland’s goalkeeping guru Mark Prudhoe, who is known for identifying and developing talent.

Mowbray praised the stopper when he started for the first team in a pre-season game and his reputation is growing fast.

Sunderland tied down Young to a two- year deal recently but he is already with a leading agency and the club may cash in on him.

The Black Cats released another keeper ‘find’, Toby Bell — who is even younger than Young — to Chelsea this summer.

City also fancied Bell, 15, but their focus now is the latest Sunderland whizkid.

SunSport also revealed how the Premier League champions are competing with Brighton to sign Argentinian left-back Valentin Barco.

The Seagulls tried to sign Barco, 19, from Boca Juniors this summer and went close to triggering his release clause of around £10million.

However, Manchester City and Juventus were also strongly linked and the whole deal became too hard to broker.

But progressive Brighton still think they can offer Barco the best move at this point of his career.

Boss Roberto de Zerbi remains optimistic a deal can be struck however, the club may have to pay more for him than expected.

EPACity are competing with Brighton to sign Valentin Barco[/caption]