City’s Cucurella bid stalls: Guardiola activates Plan B

Brighton & Hove Albion are not budging from their asking price for Marc Cucurella - €60 million. That is a price too high to pay as far as Manchester City are concerned. Guardiola is only willing to go to 50 million - that is City’s maximum offer and now they are looking at alternatives, the Daily Mail reports. According to reports in the English media, City are now considering strengthening the left-back position with Stuttgart’s Borna Sosa or Benfica’s Alex Grimaldo.

But Cucurella’s plan is to join City and at the end of last week he submitted a transfer request - a formal request to leave the club. It was hardly surprising that the Spanish defender was not listed in the team that met Espanyol in the Seagulls’ final friendly of the pre-season on Saturday.

After selling Oleksandr Zinchenko to Arsenal, City now only have João Cancelo for the left-back position. Guardiola identified Cucurella as the missing link. However, the transfer window has now entered its final few weeks and Brighton have not lowered their demands. City have little option but to look at other alternatives.

The first of them is Sosa, a winger noted in the Bundesliga for his technique. He would cost 30 million euros at the most. That is a viable option for City, who also have their eyes on another player raised in La Masía - Grimaldo. The Catalan defender played 48 games for Benfica last season, and can score goals as well as prevent them - he netted six last year, another argument in his favour.