Marc Cucurella: Brighton owner reveals no bids have been submitted for Man City target

Brighton owner and chairman Tony Bloom has revealed the club has not received any bids for Manchester City target Marc Cucurella.

The Spaniard only joined the Seagulls from Getafe last summer but was one of the signings of the season, making 35 Premier League appearances as his side secured a finish of ninth, the best ever in their history.

In June that Manchester City were working on deals for Kalvin Phillips and Cucurella – Phillips has since joined the Citizens while manager Pep Guardiola has green-lit a £50m move for Cucurella.

However, despite City’s interest Bloom has revealed the south coast club are yet to have any bids come in for their star defender.

He told BBC Radio Sussex: “Marc is a tremendous player, a tremendous person. He’s brilliant for the dressing room. The players love him, Graham and the coaches love him, I love him, the fans love him. He was unbelievably good last season, his first season in the Premier League. We’re hoping for more to come and we haven’t had a bid for him.

“I’m not going to speculate on individual players we may or may not get bids for. The fact that there is speculation and there is interest in our players, I always view that as a positive. It hasn’t always been like that. There’s less than three or four clubs where some of the players are not for sale.

We’ve got to be realistic if a certain bid comes in and the player wants to move, the player will move, but we are not anticipating, we’re not looking for our best players to move on. If it happens and we get a bid then we have to consider it, but until that point, we carry on.”

Cucurella has previously revealed he would find it hard to turn down a move to City, stating: “If the opportunity arises, you have to take advantage of it. There are teams that you can’t say no to. No, sincerely no [Pep Guardiola has not called]. Of course, there are rumours.”