Manchester City frustrated with Brighton over Marc Cucurella transfer negotiations
Manchester City frustrated with Brighton over Marc Cucurella transfer, who’s now on verge of joining Chelsea.
Marc Cucurella’s transfer negotiations have apparently left Manchester City dissatisfied with Brighton & Hove Albion on the way things played out.
Joao Cancelo is City’s sole senior left-back option now that Oleksandr Zinchenko has been sold to Arsenal, and he is backed up by an inexperienced and prone to injury Josh Wilson-Esbrand, making them incredibly thin in that position.
Man City were hoping to land the Spaniard but now after additional discussions with Brighton, Chelsea are closing close on a £50 million deal for Cucurella.
The 24-year-old has already committed to joining the Stamford Bridge team and is seeking approval after Brighton’s owners have approved the specifics of the fee and payment.
Cucurella had handed in a transfer request last week after seeing City thwarted in their attempts to sign him for under £40m.
According to The Athletic, sources close to Cucurella and key ones at City thought a deal would be possible up to the end of last week.
According to the same report, the 24-year-old was anxious to work with City manager Guardiola and turned down a contract extension from Brighton. Instead, it appears like Cucurella will team up with Blues manager Thomas Tuchel and his revamped defense.
Despite never truly communicating a definite value to City throughout talks and failing to properly engage in open dialogue, Brighton refused to budge from their £50 million valuation of the left-back, and Man City was unwilling to make any further offers.
A £40million move would have made Cucurella the fourth most expensive left-back of all time, and therefore would represent a fine piece of business, but Brighton have insisted they also saw him as a center-back, and that there are lots of expensive center-backs.
Even though they were aware of the City’s interest at the conclusion of the previous summer, they claimed that they had not even been seeking for a replacement.
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