Brighton reject Man City bid for Cucurella - Pep on the hunt for another top-class defender

Manchester City’s attempts to sign a new left-back hit a major roadblock on Thursday morning, when Brighton reportedly rejected the English champion’s attempts to sign Marc Cucurella. According to the Athletic, Pep Guardiola’s side made an opening bid of £30 million (€35m), which fell well short of how much the Seagulls value their player. The 23-year-old defender currently has a market value of £25.2m (€28m) and could end up costing Man City almost twice that amount, if reports are to be believed. 

The Premier League giants are in the market for a new full-back, following the departure of Oleksandr Zinchenko to Arsenal. Although the Ukrainian international was never a definitive starter under Guardiola, he did play his fair share of games at left-back and shared the load with first-choice João Cancelo or on occasion converted central defender Nathan Aké. As such, Man City are in need of a left-back to not only provide depth but potentially become their first-choice player in that position, if Cancelo remains on the right flank this season. 

Despite the perceived wisdom suggesting that most big clubs reserve their transfer budgets for attacking players, such an offer for a full-back certainly fits in with Man City’s wider policy of bulking out their defence since Guardiola arrived at the club in 2016. Since then, the club have spent over €50m on no less than six defensive players and should Cucurella make the move to the club for around €58m, he would only be the club’s fourth most expensive defensive signing under Guardiola. 

As such, while Man City may be playing coy with Brighton’s attempts to hike up the price of their full-back, history would suggest that Guardiola and his bosses at the Etihad more often than not are perfectly comfortable paying top price for the very best defensive talents. Especially if there is a notably hole in a team that is expected to challenge for major trophies in England and the continent this coming season.