PEP GUARDIOLA will never get his no1 transfer target Leonardo Bonucci to Manchester City after Juventus rebuffed a £38m offer.
The classy centre-back slotted home a normal-time penalty in Italy’s Euro 2016 quarter-final with Germany, despite never having taken one before.
But he missed in the shoot-out to sadly contribute to his side’s early exit..
The spot-kick miss is, however, unlikely to have dampened Guardiola’s love for the centre-back who he purred over in February and wants to bring to the Premier League.
While at Bayern Munich last season, after drawing with Bonucci’s Juve in a tense Champions League clash, the City boss said: “Did you really think we could come here and expect to dominate for 90 minutes against a side with Pogba, Mandzukic, Morata, Bonucci – one of my favourite ever players – Buffon and all these characters?”
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Now, according to reports in Italy, City have lodged the mega-money bid but the Old Lady are having none of it.The Turin side already know they can cash in Manchester United target Pogba at any time and claim up to around £100million.
And they have already recruited majestic midfielder Miralem Pjanic for that possible eventuality.
That means they can afford to hang on to their brilliant defensive boss, the foundations on which five consecutive Scudetto titles have been built on.
In his last six seasons the 29-year-old has played 198 league games, making him far more durable than City’s current defensive base Vincent Kompany who has struggled with injuries.
City bosses since Mark Hughes have tried to find the best partner for the Belgian with the likes of Martin Demichelis, Micah Richards, Joleon Lescott and Matija Nastisic coming and going.
The ball-playing leader is under contract at Juve until 2020 and the Italian kings have ruled out any chance of selling him.
The former Barcelona boss is seriously rebuilding his defensive with Aleksandar Kolarov getting sold on and Everton starlet John Stones being targeted for £45m.
Ex-Italy boss Antonio Conte will also be aware he has no chance of landing his star defender at new club Chelsea as they jet off for their pre-season tours of Austria and the USA.
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