Exclusive: Caroline Weir edging closer to Real Madrid move as Manchester City exodus continues

Scotland midfielder Caroline Weir is edging closer to a move to Real Madrid from Manchester City this summer, Telegraph Sport understands.

A final agreement has not yet been reached but the Spanish club are increasingly confident of securing Weir's signature on a free transfer, with the 26-year-old's current contract expiring this summer.

Weir has been a nominee for Fifa's Puskas award, for the world's best goals of the year, for the past two years. Those nominations both came for stunning individual strikes against rivals Manchester United, against whom she then scored yet another eye-catching chip from outside the box in February 2022.

Weir has been linked with Real Madrid in the Spanish media for several weeks and has been attracting interest from elsewhere around Europe for some time, but sources now indicate that a deal with Real is closer than ever.

Confirmation of a move to Real Madrid may not come until later in the summer, but her departure would be a further blow to Manchester City, where she is a fans' favourite, at a time when at least two more of the team's other regular starters and most influential players are set to leave this summer, too.

England midfielder Georgia Stanway set to sign for German giants Bayern Munich, and it is understood England right-back Lucy Bronze is weighing up a move to the west coast of America to play in the NWSL.

Stanway posted a thank-you message on social media on Tuesday morning, expressing her gratitude to Man City as she prepares to leave the club after seven years. The club's record scorer added: "I'll be back as a fan, if not a player."

Moving in the other direction, Telegraph Sport revealed exclusively in March that Manchester City were plotting a summer swoop for Atletico Madrid duo Deyna Castellanos and Laia Aleixandri, with talks at an advanced stage. Both players are expected move to the English club on free transfers at the end of their current contracts.

Analysis: Man City in danger of going backwards with key players leaving

For Manchester City fans, the prospect of losing three of their strongest and best-loved first-team players all in the same summer will be alarming.

It will be particularly disheartening for them in light of the fact they had just been on a 13-match winning run and, on the pitch, encouraging signs were there to suggest they could kick-on next term and challenge for the title.

Off the pitch, though, multiple sources have said the club are not currently offering the kind of packages that some big European clubs are able to spend. That's not to say that Weir, Stanway and Bronze's moves are motivated purely by money - on the contrary, each of them has footballing reasons to move, challenges they want to rise to, and primarily this is about their ambitions on the pitch in each of their own careers.

Nonetheless, it is understood that offers made to Weir, Stanway and Bronze by multiple overseas clubs have all been substantially better than what Manchester City have currently been prepared to offer within their wage structure. And this is perhaps no huge surprise - recent financial accounts published for WSL clubs show that Man City's spending is notably lower than that of WSL champions Chelsea.

Inflation in WSL salaries around the globe has been on a sharp rise in recent years, and the majority of players remain on relatively short-term contracts across the sport. That means almost all the big summer moves still tend to be free transfers, and players can ask for bigger salaries because there has been no transfer fee involved.

However, another key factor here is that the club has allowed a situation to develop whereby multiple senior players' contracts are all running to a conclusion at the same time, which is clearly not an ideal situation in terms of planning. In order to remain competitive at the very top - which Man City have been, consistently since 2015 - that must not happen again.

Yet, as it stands, a similar fate could await the club in 12 months time, with crucial holding midfielder Keira Walsh's contract about to enter its final year, and the same applies to centre-half Alex Greenwood, who has arguably been the team's player of the season.

A lot could change in the coming months, but if they were both to be allowed to leave for free next summer too, fears will mount that the club could enter a downward curve, rather than the upward trajectory they crave.