Manchester City’s interest in Fred in January was well known, but now Sheth has revealed it got to an advanced stage.
The Brazil midfielder impressed Pep Guardiola in City’s Champions League group stage matches against Shakhtar Donetsk at the end of 2017. However, the City boss changed his mind on signing Fred and instead plumped for centre-back Aymeric Laporte.
A delegation from Shakhtar has been over to the City Football Academy at least once since December. Manchester United have also kept tabs on Fred this season.
Guardiola has made landing a new midfielder a priority this summer, with scouts having watched Julian Weigl at Borussia Dortmund.
Fred added: ‘Guardiola did not talk to me, but there were people from City who talked to my agent. Out of the window we try to forget and focus on football. In the middle of the year, we wait to see what will happen.’