Manchester City's pursuit of Ajax left-back Nicolas Tagliafico hinges on whether they can offload Oleksandar Zinchenko, claims The Daily Telegraph.
Pep Guardiola wants to sign another left-back to provide competition for Benjamin Mendy and now deems Zinchenko surplus to requirements.
Tagliafico is reportedly a target for Manchester United but the Red Devils are close to landing Porto's Alex Telles to give their neighbourhood rivals a free run at the Ajax defender.
City are in disarray following Sunday's shock 5-2 defeat at home to Leicester, the biggest defeat of Guardiola's career, and are planning further defensive reinforcements.
Guardiola's side have already shelled out £40m to sign Nathan Ake this summer and are on the verge of landing Benfica centre-back Ruben Dias for £65m.
Tagliafico has an asking price in excess of £20m and landing the Argentina international would take Guardiola's spending on defenders alone during his time at City in excess of £450m.
The 28-year-old has spent the last two years at Ajax and played an important role in the club's unlikely run to the last four of the Champions League in his first season at the club.
Moreover, Tagliafico garnered a perfect 10 rating for Ajax against Lille in the Champions League group stage last season, becoming the first defender to do so in the competition since we started collecting Opta data in 2009.
However, in order to have any chance of landing Tagliafico or any new left-back then City must first find a buyer for Zinchenko, who still has four years left to run on his current deal after only signing an extension 12 months ago.
