In the early hours of Thursday, Manchester City fans got a glimpse of Marc Cucurella fitting into the team despite still being a Brighton player.
After agreeing to sell Oleksandr Zinchenko to Arsenal for around £30m, City have made an official bid for the Spanish left-back. Brighton rejected a bid of £30m and refused to drop below their £50m asking price. City will return with a fresh bid but are believed to walk away if Brighton refuse to budge.
After City beat Club America 2-1 in the first leg of their pre-season tour of the US, Pep Guardiola admitted the club are looking to sign a replacement for Zinchenko - he did not name Cucurella - but if they don't then he still has options in the position.
"We're trying, but that doesn't mean it's going to happen," Guardiola said. "If it doesn't happen, we have alternatives with Joao [Cancelo], Josh [Wilson-Esbrand] is a young talent, Nathan [Ake] can play there. We'll see what happens."
Cancelo started Thursday's game in Houston but was replaced at halftime by 19-year-old Wilson-Esbrand. The young left-back has impressed, but while he has not featured for City this season, he has shown how Guardiola would use Cucurella if City were to land a transfer target.
Unlike Cancelo's tendency to drift inside as an 'inverted' full-back, Wilson-Esbrand is a very traditional attacking left-back who likes to make overlapping runs and offer real width to attacking movements.
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