To say it’s been a difficult season for Oleksandr Zinchenko would be an almighty understatement.

Despite winning the Premier League title with Manchester City, it has been played amidst a backdrop of a war raging in his home country of Ukraine.

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And when his national side travelled to Scotland for their World Cup play-off semi-final earlier this week, the versatile 25-year-old inspired his side to an emotional 3-1 victory at Hampden Park.

It teed up a final with Wales on Sunday, with the winner knowing a victory will see them qualify for the World Cup in Qatar.

And his summer could be set to become even more eventful, with a potential transfer on the horizon.

Reports that Man City are reportedly closing in on the signing of Brighton left-back Marc Cucurella would see his chances of playing in defence – which isn’t even necessarily his favoured position – decrease.

Zinchenko, who tends to flourish best when playing in midfield, especially for his country, is said to be attracting interest from multiple Premier League clubs, including Newcastle and Everton.

That’s according to The Athletic, who state that the four-time Premier League winner could be set to leave Manchester during this transfer window.

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The other team to have been heavily linked with him is Arsenal, where he could reunite with his former City coach Mikel Arteta.

Links with the Gunners come eight years after he was first wanted by the north Londoners, with their legendary boss Arsene Wenger demanding that the then-17-year-old was signed.

“Two years ago, Arsene Wenger phoned me,” Sandor Varga, the player’s representative, told Russian paper Sovetskiy Sport.

“Zinchenko was 17 then and Shakhtar played Arsenal in the UEFA Youth League. Arsene watched the match and immediately called me, saying: ‘I need Zinchenko’.

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“[Arsenal] made an offer but there were some problems and then Zinchenko was discovered by a lot of people.”

Instead, the youngster moved from Shakhtar to FC Ufa and impressed for Ukraine at Euro 2016, which then saw Guardiola snap him up.

Kyle Walker recently praised his teammate and, when asked about his technical ability, rated him higher than Kevin De Bruyne. That’s high praise.

“Technical ability, not in any order, because I wouldn’t want to put them in any order,” Walker told Michael Timbs.

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“My top three are: Zinchenko, Mahrez, [Bernado] Silva.”

On the Ukrainian, he added: “He’s incredible, he’s incredible. Two-touch, head tennis, [Teqball], he’s incredible. So, so good.”

And Guardiola has always been extremely complimentary about his makeshift left-back too, and praised his ‘incredible’ attitude when he was close to a move away from the club a few years ago.

“Incredible is the only thing I can say,” Guardiola said in 2019. “Oleks has showed me the importance and value of being a good guy.

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“At the beginning of the season he was close to making a transfer, and I never saw him have one bad face or had a bad training session from him.

“Some players want to show me how disappointed they are, but Zinchenko is the complete opposite. When this happens, you are always going to play good.

“He is going to have a long career, here (at City) hopefully!”

If his time in Manchester does come to an end this summer, it hasn’t necessarily been as long as Guardiola predicted.

But, having won ten trophies during his time at the Etihad Stadium, it has undoubtedly been successful.