Chelsea defender Marc Cucurella joined the club from Brighton this summer, but Manchester City were also keen on signing the left-back.
Cucurella only joined Brighton at the beginning of last season, but after an excellent campaign on the south coast, the Spanish defender attracted the interest of some of the biggest clubs in the Premier League.
It was no secret that Manchester City were interested in signing Cucurella before he joined Chelsea, but Fabrizio Romano has now revealed why a move up north never materialised.
Romano claims that Brighton were keen to involve Julian Alvarez on loan as part of the deal to take Cucurella to Manchester City, but Pep Guardiola insisted Alvarez was staying with the first team, with over ten approaches turned down for the attacker.
Eventually, Cucurella joined Chelsea, with Levi Colwill going the other way, possibly a reason why Brighton accepted their approach.
Billy Gilmour also joined Brighton from Chelsea later on in the window, but in a completely separate deal. Manchester City signed Sergio Gomez as an alternative to Cucurella.
And his performances since joining Chelsea show we were right not to pay an inflated price. Good player, would undoubtedly improve under Pep (Tuchel’s a loose cannon and may be lucky to be at the Bridge at the end of the season – lucky the Oligarch has gone for sure)
Fired as we speak!!
Correct Jeremy. He would have been a back up at City, and at Chelsea he is certainly no better than Chilwell, and is o ly picked ahead of him because of the fee paid and vanity
City certainly know the value of a player that’s for sure Jeremy. Akanji at 17m and Gomez at 12ish look to be great value.
Cucurella, eat your heart out. Although its your club that did not want to let you go for 40m.