Man City respond to Chelsea’s £75M Malo Gusto demand as post-World Cup talks loom | OneFootball

Manchester City have responded to Chelsea’s £75 million valuation of Malo Gusto by refusing to meet that asking price, as per a new report.

The right-back position has emerged as one of the most persistent and complex areas of Manchester City’s summer recruitment, with director of football Hugo Viana and Enzo Maresca united in their desire to bring genuine quality and experience to a position that went unaddressed in any meaningful sense throughout the final season of Pep Guardiola‘s tenure.

Matheus Nunes was deployed from central midfield to fill the role on a regular basis last season, while Rico Lewis struggled to nail down the consistent minutes both he and the club had hoped for – a situation that has underlined the urgency of finding a specialist solution in the transfer market before the start of the 2026-27 campaign.

Malo Gusto has been Maresca’s preferred candidate throughout, with the Frenchman’s familiarity with the manager’s system – built across two goals and six assists in 72 appearances under the Italian at Stamford Bridge – giving the pursuit a personal dimension that goes beyond pure recruitment logic.

Chelsea’s reluctance to sell below £75 million has been the central obstacle in what has so far been a drawn-out negotiation between two clubs whose relationship carries the additional complication of the Maresca compensation dispute resolved earlier this summer.

Report: City confident of progress as Chelsea open to ‘right price’ deal

According to Pete O’Rourke of Football Insider, City do not want to pay £75 million for Gusto but are expecting to hold further talks with Chelsea after the World Cup as they look to push a deal forward, with sources telling the outlet that Chelsea are open to letting Gusto join City for the right price.

Maresca is understood to be pushing actively to get the move done, having made the right-back position a clear priority since his appointment at the Etihad Stadium, and O’Rourke reports that should there be an indication the player is ready to make the move, “you would expect things to ramp up, especially after the World Cup is over.”

Gusto’s own situation at Chelsea has been complicated further by the club’s reported move to sign Atalanta‘s Marco Palestra as competition at right-back, a development that adds a new layer of pressure on the 23-year-old to make a decision on his future before the window closes and his route to first-team football at Stamford Bridge becomes even less straightforward.

The France international played a late cameo in France‘s 2-0 quarter-final victory over Morocco on Thursday, with the tournament’s semi-final against Spain now confirmed as his next assignment – meaning the post-World Cup conversation with both Chelsea and Manchester City that could determine his future is still at least a week away from taking its final shape.

What does City’s response mean for the Gusto pursuit going forward?

The framing of City’s position – willing but not at £75 million, and confident that further talks can bridge the gap – suggests a negotiation that is progressing rather than stalling, with both clubs now waiting for the natural pause that the conclusion of the World Cup will provide before resuming discussions in earnest.

Viana’s transfer strategy throughout the summer has been defined by a willingness to push for the players Maresca wants while maintaining firm financial discipline on valuation – a balance that saw City ultimately pay £116 million for Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest while resisting overtures on other targets deemed to be overvalued at their asking prices.

The Rico Lewis situation adds further urgency to a resolution, with the 21-year-old understood to be considering his future if regular first-team football cannot be guaranteed – a departure that would make the Gusto pursuit not just desirable but close to essential for a club that currently lacks a specialist right-back of Premier League quality in their senior squad.

Whether Chelsea’s stance softens in the weeks ahead, or whether City ultimately decide that their financial ceiling on Gusto is non-negotiable and pivot to an alternative, is set to become one of the defining transfer stories of the window’s final phase.