Transfer Talk: City hit stumbling block in Cucurella chase

Manchester City are considering alternatives to Marc Cucurella after seeing their opening offer rebuffed by Brighton.

The English champions submitted a £30million bid for the Spanish full-back earlier this week, according to the Athletic.

However, savvy Seagulls owner Tony Bloom is not in the business of selling his players cheaply and is reportedly holding out for upwards of £50m.

Oleksandr Zinchenko’s imminent departure for Arsenal means signing a natural left-sided defender is now a priority for City ahead of the new campaign.

Boss Pep Guardiola rates Cucurella highly and would dearly love to bring his fellow Catalan to the Etihad. 

Yet club chiefs are not willing to break the bank on the one-cap ace, who turned 24 today, and have already begun looking elsewhere in case an agreement is not reached.

The Independent say Benfica’s Alex Grimaldo is one of those alternatives with the Portuguese outfit supposedly contacting several Premier League sides regarding his availability.

Guardiola, however, has suggested he could go into the new campaign with the options already at his disposal.

Joao Cancelo, Aymeric Laporte and Nathan Ake have all played left-back under the 51-year-old tactician while youngster Josh Wilson-Esbrand is also highly rated.

Guardiola said: "Whatever the club decide they have to do, I follow the club.

"The club decides the signings. We miss an important player in the locker room with Oleks [Zinchenko] — really, really important. We are trying to strengthen but it doesn't mean it's going to happen.

"If it doesn't happen we have alternatives with Joao, with Josh who is a young, young talent, Nathan can play there. We will see what happens."

In other news

Luis Suarez could head to Borussia Dortmund on a free transfer after his Atletico Madrid contract expired, report Sky Sports Germany.

The Sun suggest Manchester United and Chelsea will battle it out for French international defender Benjamin Pavard, who is ready to leave Bayern Munich.

Jose Mourinho has been offered the chance to bring Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum to Roma, according to reports in Italy.