Manchester City have missed out on signing Marc Cucurella from Brighton & Hove Albion after failing to match his asking price, but Frank McAvennie doesn’t believe he’d even get into their starting eleven. The 24-year-old recently joined Chelsea but was a coveted target of Pep Guardiola’s.
Cucurella wouldn’t have any real competition at City either as Joao Cancelo is a natural right-back, Nathan Ake and Aymeric Lapore are natural centre-backs and Josh Wilson-Esbrand is still young and raw, but McAvennie is adamant that Guardiola’s squad rotation would see the Spaniard out of the side on occasion.
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He told Football Insider: “If he goes somewhere else then he’ll be a mainstay. If he goes to another team, maybe not Man City, if he went to Man United he’d be playing all the time but at Man City he won’t.
“Doesn’t matter what position goes in to Man City, you go in and you’re not going to get as much game time as you would like. He’s a good player but is he going to get in every week? No, I don’t think that’ll happen.”
Cucurella made 38 appearances in all competitions for Brighton, scoring one goal with two assists. He’s featured for Barcelona in the past and has all the hallmarks to be a good left-back under Guardiola, but City refused to pay what the Seagulls were requesting.
Brighton wanted in excess of £50m, but City weren’t willing to go above £40m, so Cucurella ended up going to Chelsea. Their failure to sign him now means Guardiola has to pick between Cancelo, Ake, Laporte and Wilson-Esbrand if he can’t get a left-back before the summer transfer window closes.
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