Marc Cucurella was left out of Brighton's squad to face Espanyol on Saturday after putting in a transfer request.
The 24-year-old has been given time off after Brighton rejected Manchester City's latest bid for him and refused to engage in further negotiations unless City meet their £50million plus valuation. Cucurella and City believe the valuation is unrealistic.
City have offered around £35m and were willing to push to £40m but that is not good enough for Brighton who value left-back Cucurella highly.
Cucurella's Premier League experience makes him an appealing option for City, but Brighton's valuation of him is proving to be a stumbling block.
Having sold Oleksandr Zinchenko to Arsenal, City are on the lookout for a signing at left-back.
City are now considering other options such as Borna Sosa at Stuttgart.
A Croatia international, Sosa joined Stuttgart from Dinamo Zagreb in 2018.
Meanwhile, Stoke City are leading the chase to take Manchester City striker Liam Delap on loan. City have a number of offers for the 19-year-old and rejected a bid worth £20m from Southampton.
They are considering the best course of action this week as with highly-rated midfielder James McAtee. Delap's father Rory was a a crowd favourite at Stoke.
Delap has made six senior appearances for City so far, scoring once.
He has been prolific at Under-23 level, finding the net 35 times in 36 appearances.
So far in this transfer window Pep Guardiola's side have signed Erling Haaland, Kalvin Phillips and Stefan Ortega.