Manchester City poised to bid for Brighton left-back Marc Cucurella

Manchester City are poised to bid for Brighton’s Marc Cucurella, their top target at left-back. Pep Guardiola is determined to sign his fellow Catalan after being impressed by his performances in the Premier League.

Cucurella joined Brighton from Getafe last August, after a spell at Barcelona in which he did not progress beyond the B team. City’s interest is well established and their first offer is expected within days.

Brighton stand to make a sizeable profit if they sell Cucurella, who joined for £15.4m and wept tears of joy after scoring his first goal for the club in May’s 4-0 win over Manchester United.

Although Oleksandr Zinchenko and the right-footed João Cancelo played successfully at left-back last season to help City to the title, Guardiola wants another specialist in the position. Benjamin Mendy is indefinitely suspended.

City have bought Erling Haaland from Borussia Dortmund for £51m and the chairman, Khaldoon al-Mubarak, has said two more signings are planned.

Another Brighton player, Yves Bissouma, is having a medical at Tottenham after agreement was reached over a move for £25m plus-ons. The midfielder has been at Brighton since 2018.

Fulham are progressing in talks to buy the Israel forward Manor Solomon from Shakhtar Donetsk and pushing to sign the defensive midfielder João Palhinha from Sporting Lisbon. The Portuguese is also a target for Wolves.