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. City have agreed to sell the goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu to Southampton for £12m plus add-ons, with a buy-back option and a percentage of any future sale.
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.
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Nottingham Forest are in discussions to sign the left-footed centre-back Moussa Niakhaté from Mainz. The former France Under-21s captain has spent four seasons with Mainz after spells in his homeland with Valenciennes and Metz. Niakhaté has attracted interest from a number of Premier League clubs, including West Ham and Newcastle, in recent months and helped Mainz to finish eighth in the Bundesliga last season.
Forest are increasingly confident of securing a deal to sign Manchester United’s goalkeeper Dean Henderson on loan with an option to buy next summer. They are battling a number of clubs to sign the winger Morgan Gibbs-White from Wolves. The 22-year-old impressed on loan in the Championship last season at Sheffield United and missed the penalty that ensured Forest made the playoff final.
