Cucurella set to be latest wing-back through Man City's revolving door
Suraj Radia
- 18 Jul 2022 20:42 BST
- 4 min read
Pep Guardiola is set to pursue yet another big money deal for a wing-back, with Marc Cucurella in line to join Manchester City as a replacement for the outgoing Oleksandr Zinchenko.
Zinchenko has agreed a move to Arsenal for a fee in excess of £30 million while City are preparing a formal bid to Brighton for Cucurella to replace the Ukranian.
With Brighton set to demand up to £50m for Cucurella, it could take Guardiola's total spend on wing-backs to more than £250m during his six seasons at the club and FootballTransfers delves into the history behind City's problem position.
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When Guardiola arrived in Manchester in 2016, City's wing back options were Bacary Sagna, Pablo Zabaleta, Aleksandar Kolarov and Gael Clichy, all of whom were in their 30s and coming to the end of their contracts.
All four senior players left after Pep's first season, meaning the ex-Barcelona boss was on the lookout for a brand new rotation of defenders.
Kyle Walker was the first to arrive for a record £45 million fee from Tottenham and the England international has proven to be astute business having held down the right-back spot to this day.
Danilo was next through the door, with the versatile Brazilian signing from Real Madrid for £26.5m to be a backup on both sides before Benjamin Mendy signed from Marseille for £49m, once again breaking the record fee for a defender.
Mendy suffered a season-ending injury just seven games into the season, forcing Danilo to deputise and prompting midfielder Zinchenko, a £1.7m arrival in Pep's first season, to often feature at left-back.
Despite Mendy's fitness issues and Danilo struggling to adapt to English football, Guardiola kept faith with his options for his third season as City won a domestic treble.
However, that summer the club negotiated a deal with Juventus that saw Joao Cancelo arrive for an eye-watering £60m, with Danilo going the other way for £34m.
The arrival of Cancelo turned out to be exceptional business as the Portuguese international reliably filled in on both sides, with Mendy still struggling with injuries.
😏 Marc Cucurella created more goalscoring chances from open play (40) than Andy Robertson (38) and Joao Cancelo (36) in the Premier League this season pic.twitter.com/fA0qFDWUNz
— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) May 27, 2022
Nathan Ake was another arrival in 2020 for £40m from Bournemouth, although the Dutchman largely filled in at centre-back as well as left-back.
Things took a turn for the worse at the start of the 2021/22 season when Mendy was arrested on suspicion of rape, effectively ending his City career with 50 appearances in five seasons.
The situation surrounding Mendy meant Cancelo was shifted to left-back, where he impressed and was named in the PFA Team of the Year for the second season running as City secured a fourth title in five years.
City are now set to move for Cucurella and, at 23 years old, the Spaniard would represent a long-term option at left-back for City, especially with the departure of Zinchenko to Arsenal, potentially making him the final piece of City's costly puzzle.
