Written by Kieran Miller

Manchester City are set to open official discussions with Brighton over the Spaniard, Marc Cucurella.

With Ukrainian, Oleksandr Zinchenko on his way out of Pep Guardiola‘s side Manchester City have already opened talks to adopt a replacement.

Manchester City are currently £20m off of Brighton‘s asking price, which is around £50-55m. Cucurella has been a priority for Pep Guardiola this window, they admire him. Cucurella, in Pep’s opinion, will realistically be the ideal fit for City’s ethic.

Manchester City and Cucurella‘s representatives have almost reached an agreement on personal terms. The La Masia graduate and ex-Barcelona player wants the move to go through.

Manchester City are certainly improving their squad depth as The Citizens aim to win the Champions League this year after years of coming close to the club championship of Europe.

Cucurella, if he were to sign for last season‘s Premier League winners, might not start if Pep is genuinely wanting to efficiently utilize Joao Cancelo and Kyle Walker.

Manchester City will certainly be up against competition from Liverpool again this season for the Premier League and they have been preparing for that. So far this window the Citizens have welcomed Stefan Ortega as a backup keeper, Julián Álvarez to bring some firepower up top, Kalvin Phillips from Leeds and arguably the biggest signing of the window Erling Haaland.

Haaland and Julián Álvarez are the only two signings that I can see being featured a ton throughout the season, the other two will most likely be played in games that aren’t that important or they’ll be used in games against mid-table sides.

Cucurella ended last season with the most ball recoveries (247), he was also joint 2nd behind Tyrick Mitchell for most tackles made by defenders (93), and 2nd only to Trent Alexander-Arnold for chances created by defenders from open play last season. (40)

Cucurella sits eighth in the Premier League for accurate final third passes performed last season (531), one of several signs of his outstanding talent at selecting the optimal pass during an offence. Joao Cancelo (847) won this metric in comparison. Therefore, Cucurella ought to hypothetically mix in well at the Etihad.