Manchester City made THREE offers for key left-back target - Club compared price tag to Kyle Walker and Joao Cancelo

Left-back has been Manchester City's problem position for a number of years now.

Angeliño - now plying his trade at RB Leipzig - was the Blues' last purchase in that area of the field and no natural operator has been able to put together a consistent run of games.

As a result, Joao Cancelo - a right-back by trade - has had to adapt his game and become Pep Guardiola's first choice left-back over the last 12 months.

To his credit, the Portuguese international has been one of the standout performers.

His elite technical ability has been on full display and the 28-year-old was recently voted by his fellow professionals in the PFA Team of the Season for 2021/22.

There was a number of stand-out moments, but a sensational trivela pass to assist Raheem Sterling against Everton was a particular highlight of his spectacular season.

Joao Cancelo (PA)

He also scored a sublime solo goal against Newcastle in December. Cutting past multiple bodies, the left-back shuffled the ball onto his right foot and found the top corner.

However, despite Cancelo's brilliance, City are in desperate need for cover after letting Oleksandr Zinchenko join Arsenal for £30 million.

From day one this summer, the club's prime target was Brighton & Hove Albion's Marc Cucurella - a player who now looks bound to join Chelsea.

With that particular saga looking ever closer to reaching its conclusion, Sam Lee and Pol Ballus from the Athletic have provided all the background information on how the deal fell through.

First of all, senior figures at Brighton never communicated a specific figure to City and did not enter open dialogue with Director of Football, Txiki Begiristain.

That made the process highly confusing for City and, hence, the club made three offers for Cucurella to test what valuation the Seagulls would accept.

Brighton have denied Chelsea have agreed a deal for Marc Cucurella (Image: Alamy)

Bids of £30m, £35m and £40 million were rejected across the last month and Brighton made it clear they wanted a fee north of £50 million.

During these negotiations, the South Coast outfit pointed out some of City's past transfer dealings.

They discussed the fees paid to sign Kyle Walker - £50 million plus £4 million in add-ons - and Joao Cancelo - £60 million.

City obviously had major counter arguments that both players had much higher levels of European pedigree and Walker in particular filled the homegrown quota.

All-in-all, seeing how much back and forth Chelsea are currently experiencing, it was probably a good idea for City to move on in search of other targets.

On that front, Alex Grimaldo from Benfica and Borna Sosa from VfB Stuttgart are reportedly on City's shortlist.