Manchester City have swooped to sign highly-rated Swiss midfielder Gelson Fernandes.
The 20-year-old has penned a four-year deal at the City of Manchester Stadium after the two clubs agreed a fee worth 9.5million Swiss francs (£3.8million) - which is a record sale for the Swiss league.
Fernandes has attracted interest from Bolton and Newcastle in previous months, but City have moved to seal their second signing in 24 hours following the arrival of Rolando Bianchi from Reggina.
Fernandes, who is Swiss Under-21 captain, will meet up with City's squad for the first time on Sunday ahead of their pre-season camp in Sweden.
New City boss Sven Goran Eriksson is now firmly looking to stamp his own impression on the squad and more new signings are expected to arrive over the next six weeks.
Reports in Spain on Saturday suggested that City are amongst the clubs competing for the signatures of Barcelona pair Thiago Motta and Ludovic Giuly.
Meanwhile, Eriksson has confirmed the appointment of Hans Backe as his assistant manager.
Backe guided FC Copenhagen to three successive titles and was most recently in charge at Panathinaikos.
Eriksson said: "I've known Hans for a very long time, and I offered him this job but because he has been a manager I didn't know if he would accept.
"He's won three titles with FC Copenhagen, managed in Austria and Turkey, but he accepted the offer and I'm very happy. He has a lot of experience, he knows a
lot of players from around the world and he's a very good coach."
Source : www.skysports.com
By Graeme Bailey - Created on 14 Jul 2007
