Manchester City moved a step closer to signing Samuel Eto’o as Barcelona began to prepare for life without the Cameroon striker by making a £38.5 million bid for David Villa, of Valencia.

Barcelona need to sell Eto’o to help to fund the move for Villa, who has confirmed that he will remain in Spain next season, with City ready to blow Inter Milan out of the water to secure the three-times African Footballer of the Year’s signature.

If Barcelona manage to conclude a deal for Villa relatively swiftly, Eto’o could be on board in time for the start of City’s pre-season tour to South Africa in the middle of next month.

City are prepared to make Eto’o the highest-paid player in the Barclays Premier League and meet Barcelona’s asking fee of about £25 million.

Inter are reticent about paying that much, given that Eto’o has only a year left on his contract, but the situation may change if Real Madrid decide to step up their interest in Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the Sweden forward, and leave José Mourinho, the Italian club’s coach, in search of a new striker.

Real have yet to concede defeat in their efforts to sign Villa, but while they seem more likely to turn to Karim Benzema, the Lyons striker, in the event that Villa does join their Catalan rivals, the prospect of a move for Ibrahimovic cannot be discounted.

With Eto’o thought to favour the opportunity of joining a club such as Inter that can offer Champions League football, the idea of Ibrahimovic moving to Real and paving the way for Eto’o to head to the San Siro would be a galling prospect for City given the work they have put into attempting to sign the Cameroonian.

They are unlikely to face such obstacles over Carlos Tévez, however, with a deal for the Argentina striker expected to be ratified in time for the player to take part in the first day of pre-season training on Monday week.

Bids for Joleon Lescott and Kolo Touré, the Everton and Arsenal defenders respectively, are also expected to be lodged next week, when Mark Hughes, the manager, will be back from holiday.

Richard Dunne, the Ireland defender, will be allowed to leave for Sunderland once Hughes has a replacement, while Michael Ball, Danny Mills, Dietmar Hamann and Darius Vassell are out of contract from Wednesday.

Daniel Sturridge has already left to join Chelsea, while Benjani Mwaruwari, Valeri Bojinov, Ched Evans, Felipe Caicedo and Jô could leave. Tal Ben-Haim and Gelson Fernandes are surplus to requirements as well.