According to Calciomercato, Manchester City ‘continue to court’ Leonardo Bonucci as Pep Guardiola wants to bolster his defence. Juventus won’t entertain any offers for the £16.2m-rated 33-year-old, however, as they have ‘no intention’ of selling such an important player.
Guardiola wanted to sign Bonucci in 2016 but ended up settling for John Stones from Everton, the 2017/18 campaign saw City sign Aymeric Laporte from Athletic Bilbao, and the 2020/21 season saw them bring in Nathan Ake from Bournemouth and Ruben Dias from Benfica.
So does Pep really need another centre-back with Stones, Laporte, Dias, Ake and Eric Garcia at his disposal?
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Bonucci has made 420 appearances in two stints at Juventus (2010 – 2017 and 2018 – present), scoring 30 goals with 10 assists. He’s won eight Serie A titles and three Coppa Italias with the Old Lady but is in the eve of his career. The 6ft 2in Italian international has four more years left on his contract at Juve but would be 37 by the time it expires.
Pep overstocked with centre-backs and surely wouldn’t sign an ageing defender to play outside of his country for the first time in his career. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, and even Calciomercato played down any suggestion of Juve sanctioning a deal, so there may not be legs in this one.