Man City's Stefan Ortega pursuit exposes a transfer dilemma with no easy solution

After signing a new Manchester City contract in November last year, Zack Steffen admitted he felt relief that his long-term future at the Etihad was secured. Just seven months on, and Steffen's future at the club is up in the air again, with City open to bringing in 29-year-old goalkeeper Stefan Ortega on a free transfer from Arminia Bielefield.

Both harbour World Cup ambitions, both are unlikely to accept not being City's number two, and both are unlikely to leapfrog Ederson to get regular games under Pep Guardiola. That begs the question - why would you be a backup goalkeeper at City?

There are plenty of positives to keeping Steffen, and there are no guarantees he would even leave if Ortega arrived. Steffen is a very capable stopper, a US international, a popular squad member and has been the closest City have come to genuine competition for Ederson.

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His new contract was well received, and City would always be confident of throwing him in if Ederson got injured. His mistakes in the FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool aside, Steffen has largely been a reliable back-up.

But with a World Cup coming up, and Steffen facing competition from Arsenal-bound Matt Turner, the only way to show he's deserving of the number one jersey for the US is to put in performances between August and November. Aside from the Community Shield and only one guaranteed Carabao Cup game, Steffen might only play 180 minutes before the World Cup, when he could be getting four months of regular games elsewhere.

So if he was to leave, either permanently or on loan, it would be understandable, even if City were losing their best number two in years.

In that scenario, Ortega