Hugo Viana and Manchester City facing huge challenge over right-back transfer hunt | OneFootball

Manchester City may face a significant uphill task this summer to bring in a new right-back to the club, according to new reports.

The right-sided full-back role had been identified by recruitment chiefs within the club as one of four potential areas to invest in during the ongoing summer transfer window, despite the somewhat limited options available in the market.

Manchester City have moved swiftly to identify and advance in their pursuit of players in their other three roles deemed as necessary to strengthen, with AC Milan’s Tijjani Reijnders on the verge of completed his switch with an agreement in place between the clubs.

Elsewhere and Hugo Viana, alongside support from Txiki Begiristain, is expected to secure the services of Lyon attacking midfielder Rayan Cherki and Wolverhampton Wanderers left-back Rayan Ait-Nouri.

But the right-back role is proving to be more problematic, with only a handful of names of interest to the club and their priority option not even a consideration as a potential sale this summer for his current club.

That is according to The Telegraph’s Mike McGrath, who points out that adding a right-back has not been straightforward for Hugo Viana and City. The report says ‘all top European clubs’ view Achraf Hakimi as ‘the best in class’ but he has recently committed his future to PSG.

It is once again reaffirmed that City have an interest in England international Tino Livramento – understood their number one choice for the position – but Newcastle are ‘determined’ to keep the player, while ‘nothing has materialised yet’ with Juventus’ Andrea Cambiaso.

From the side of Pep Guardiola, the City head coach is said to have been happy with Matheus Nunes’ performances in the right-back role towards the end of the last season and it seems as though the Portugal international could be utilised in the position at the Club World Cup.

Manchester City may even consider their current range of defensive options as suitable for the campaign upcoming, should a new right-back not come into the club through the ongoing transfer window.

Previous campaigns have seen Guardiola and his coaching staff utilise central defenders in the full-back roles, and the availability of Abdukodir Khusanov, Rico Lewis, John Stones, and Manuel Akanji as solutions aside from Matheus Nunes may be deemed acceptable.

Manchester City’s players who have not been selected for international duty over the course of the ongoing national team break are expected to return to training on Monday, before jetting off to the United States shortly after ahead of the start of the Club World Cup.