With Oleksandr Zinchenko failing to hold down a regular starting place last season while Benjamin Mendy remains suspended over alleged sex crimes, Manchester City have made it a priority to sign Marc Cucurella from Brighton & Hove Albion this summer.
Is Oleksandr Zinchenko good enough to start at left-back?
Yes
No
Pep Guardiola has wanted the 23-year-old for weeks, but City are waiting to sell Raheem Sterling and Nathan Ake to Chelsea before lodging a bid. It’s clear they’re making an effort to balance the books to stay in line with Financial Fair Player regulations.
Brighton are desperate to keep the 23-year-old and have reportedly opened talks over a new deal, but Gabriel Agbonlahor says Cucurella will turn them down and could ‘put in a transfer request’ to force a move to City.
He told Football Insider: “In his head he will be like ‘Don’t you dare offer me a new contract, let me go. I will put in a transfer request, I will not turn up’.
“If you’re at a club like Brighton and a club like Man City want you, you’ll do everything in your power to get out. It doesn’t matter how long you have been there.
“Man City are the Premier League champions, they are going to be in the Champions League. He’ll be dying for that move. He’ll want it to happen soon in case Man City move on to other targets.”
Cucurella joined Brighton on a five-year deal from Getafe last summer, setting the Premier League club back £16.2m.
The 23-year-old has made 38 appearances in all competitions, scoring one goal with two assists and is now worth £50m, but City are waiting on the £85m-£90m from selling Sterling and Ake before they look to bring Cucurella to the Etihad Stadium.
Whether Zinchenko will stay at City after a new left-back is signed remains to be seen, however.
In other news, a bold claim was made from a Liverpool-supporting pundit on Raheem Sterling’s future
Hear hear. A completely useless article. Totally disrespectful to the player and both clubs. Cucu is only 23 and has plenty of time to develop into an even better player under Potter. One more season at least with the Seagulls although if a genuine offer came in for £50 million plus then of course Albion could accept.
No way would Cucu force a transfer.
Crappy Cooke more like.
This is like normal newspaper trash, they dont report news, they try and make news. If he is that good, he can easily stay at Brighton and improve and next year Brighton get M70-M80, and the player can demand top wages. he is that good.
As a lifelong supporter of BHAFC (60+ years) – I don’t think I have ever seen anyone less likely to “not turn up” for a game of football than our “Cucu” He is uncapable of not getting stuck in and giving his all – which is why is is so loved at the AMEX..
Of course if the right offer does come along at the right time – and it certainly has not yet — he knows he will not be denied a career opportunity by anyone at the Albion – not from the Chairman .or GP down to we supporters. But on the other hand the club still has a lot to offer him in developing him for the next stage of his EPL experience (and – by the way – to give him virtually guaranteed game time to develop his game over the next season)
We saw similar defamatory nonsense recently about Pascal Gross. Who does make up this rubbish? and I wonder why they are not sued for defamation of character – since alleging that a professional footballer “will not turn up” seems to me clear accusation of breach of contract (and simply WRONG)